Fortum, Finland's largest and state-owned energy supplier, announced a massive loss of EUR 9.1 billion for the second quarter, which means that its total operating loss for the first half of the year was EUR 11.5 billion, a new Nordic record loss. The loss also exceeded the company's market capitalisation, which is worth EUR 9.3 billion. The shares began to fall after the results were announced on the trading day. The loss was due to a large loss in gas trading by subsidiary Uniper. The company's favourable gas supply agreement with Gazprom had come to an end and Uniper had to buy gas on the market at an expensive price and sell it at a double-digit loss equivalent to millions of euros per day. Meanwhile, Fortum's CEO Markus Rauramo wrote in the interim report that the Nordic exchange-traded electricity futures market is currently dysfunctional and driven by a regulatory framework that is not suited to the current exceptional events. According to Rauramo, Fortum will have to increase its liquidity reserves if prices continue to rise. Fortum's low share price and the continuation of the Uniper crisis are worrying investors.
Spot prices for electricity in southern Norway and Denmark soared to record highs on Thursday. Prices in south-western Norway rose by EUR 86.55 to a staggering EUR 647,13/MWh, while prices in eastern and western Norway rose by EUR 13.84 to a new record of EUR 490.31/MWh. Prices in both Danish price zones rose by EUR 99.61 to a record high of EUR 699.44/MWh, on a par with Germany. The record prices are due to rising gas prices combined with the fact that wind power in both the Nordics and Germany is currently below normal levels. On the other hand, according to Nord Pool, in southern Sweden the price of electricity fell by EUR 46.33 to EUR 409.82/MWh, while in Finland the price fell by EUR 33.26 to EUR 468.19/MWh.
Clean Motion AB, which produces solar powered electric delivery vans, reported sales of SEK 573 thousand and losses of SEK 3 million. CEO Göran Folkesson said Clean Motion has now started test driving new electric cars and may launch a completely new vehicle in the autumn. Last week, Clean Motion and The Techno Creatives formed a joint venture focusing on connected car services. The name of the company will be Electric Vehicle Cloud Technology AB. Clean Motion says that when Europe is experiencing an energy and power crisis, electrification of cars is not the optimal solution. An important part of electrification is the production of batteries and cells. But the manufacture of lithium batteries is energy intensive, requiring around 80 kWh of electricity to produce one kilowatt-hour of battery. The high price of electricity in southern Sweden has a direct impact on the cost of battery production. The solution must therefore be based on resources and energy efficiency, which is what Clean Motion has been focusing on finding since its inception in 2010. For example, Clean Motion began to consider the possibility of creating products for the home using its electrical system components. A carport containing four solar cell roofs and battery packs with associated electronics and connections could be the solution for intelligent electricity production and energy storage.
The Nordic countries are some of the most dynamic and successful economies in the world. They are also leaders in sustainability, from renewable energy, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and the hydrogen economy, circular economy business models and battery development, the Nordics are pioneers in policy design, technology development and consumer uptake. Mundus Nordic Green News is covering this transition for the international community. Every day we curate the stories of most relevance to international businesspeople and policy experts from the flow of news. Mundus Nordic Green Indices summarise the meta-data from our daily coverage to enable easy tracking of trends. We supplement these with our own opinion pieces and commentary.