Vattenfall Sweden

Sweden's state-owned Vattenfall is Europe's fifth largest generator of electricity and largest producer of heat. Vattenfall delivers electricity to around 7.4 million customers spread across Scandinavia and Western Europe and employs around 40,000 people. In 2009, Vattenfall realised a profit of SEK 27.9 billion (US$ 3.8 billion) and external net sales of SEK 205.4 billion (US$ 28.1 billion). At the end of 2009, Vattenfall had a total generation capacity of 39,322 MW of electricity and 22,401 MW of heat. The company's generation assets are spread across the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Of the total electricity generation capacity of Vattenfall, 10,778 MW consists of coal-fired power plants, representing 0.8 per cent of the worldwide coal-fired generation capacity. The coal-fired power plants of Vattenfall are located in Denmark, Germany and Poland. Next to electricity, the coal-fired power plants of Vattenfall in Poland also generate heat. For an overview of the coal-fired power plants of Vattenfall please go to the Business section of this profile. All power plants are 100% owned. The company has plants based in Germany, Denmark and Poland.

Additionally, Vattenfall is currently investing in new coal-fired power plants in Boxberg (675 MW) and in a part of Hamburg called Moorburg (1,640 MW). In Poland, Vattenfall also plans to construct two coal-fired power plants: at Pulawy, in which Vattenfall would cooperate with ZA Pulawy in a new joint venture (1,400 MW), and in Sierkierki, at the company's existing coal-fired power plant (a new unit of 480 MW). Until 2013, Vattenfall is planning to invest an additional SEK 47.5 billion (US$ 6.5 billion) in the development of new coal operations.

Of all the world's nuclear companies, Vattenfall has the dubious honour of bringing us closest to repeating 1986's Chernobyl disaster. In 2006, one of the company's Forsmark reactors in Sweden came very near to a meltdown after safety systems failed.

Vattenfall also faced double trouble in 2009. Two serious incidents at its Ringhals nuclear reactor in southern Sweden saw the company threatened with ‘special supervision' measures which put safety procedures under increased scrutiny. One incident involved the failure of an automatic safety system designed to prevent the release of radioactive material. To make matters worse almost sixty other incidents were reported at the reactor in 2009 alone.

In the same week in Germany, the company fired the plant manager of its Krummel reactor. The reactor had only been running for two weeks - after a fire in a transformer in 2007 closed the plant for two years - when a short circuit in another transformer caused the reactor to shut down once again. It was expected to stay shut down for at least another year.

Amazingly, Vattenfall maintain that nuclear power is an ‘important part of making electricity clean'. In Germany it is fighting to extend the lifetimes of its reactors despite them being some of the oldest and most dangerous in Europe. In 2009 the Swedish government announced plans to overturn the 30 year ban on new nuclear power stations. Vattenfall's special brand of incompetence is sure to feature in any nuclear ‘renaissance'.

Vattenfall is 100% owned by the Kingdom of Sweden.