E.on dumps nuclear project in Finland

Deutsche Welle, 24 october 2012

German E.on energy group plans to sell its business in Finland, including a stake in a consortium that wants to build a new nuclear reactor. The move is part of the company's drive to revise its nuclear strategy.

E.on subsidiary E.on Nordic is planning to sell its 34-percent stake in Fennovoima, a Scandinavian consortium created in 2009 with the aim of building a new nuclear reactor in Finland, the German energy group announced Wednesday.

Jonas Abrahamsson, E.on northern regional manager said the decision was part of the energy group's drive to withdraw investments from Finland and re-focus its Scandinavian business on Sweden and Denmark.

"We've started to sell off all our assets in Finland," Abrahamsson said, adding that this would also include a 20-percent stake in natural gas company Gasum.

As talks about the future ownership of the Fennovoima consortium were underway, the nuclear project worth about 6 billion euros ($7.76 billion) wasn't threatened, Finish steelmaker Outokumpu, which also owns a stake in the project, said.

Outokumpu Chief Executive Mika Seitovirta told Finish public broadcaster YLE the group remained committed to building the nuclear reactor.

In March this year, E.on already pulled out of a joint venture with its German rival RWE to build a new nuclear power plant in Great Britain. E.on cited high building costs as a major reason for leaving the project.

E.on, which is Germany's biggest energy group, runs several nuclear plants in Germany and one in Sweden.

However, its earnings from nuclear power have slumped after the German government decided last year to immediately shut down older reactors after the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.

Furthermore, Berlin's plan to completely phase out nuclear power in Germany by 2022 has caused E.on to revise its business portfolio toward more renewable forms of energy.

uhe/mz (Reuters, dpa)

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“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”