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By: BankTrack
Created before Nov 2016
Last update: 2022-05-18 00:00:00

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.. Photo: .
Sector Biomass Electric Power Generation, Coal Electric Power Generation, Coal Mining, Hydroelectric Power Generation, Mining, Nuclear Electric Power Generation, Solar Electric Power Generation, Wind Electric Power Generation
Headquarters
Ownership

Vattenfall is 100% owned by the Kingdom of Sweden.

Subsidiaries
Website https://group.vattenfall.com/

About Vattenfall

Sweden's state-owned Vattenfall is Europe's sixth largest generator of electricity and largest producer of heat. In 2013, Vattenfall's total installed capacity across all its operations stood at 39,106 megawatts. In Sweden it has a market share of 50 %. The company's generation assets are spread across the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands.  It uses 7 sources for its energy: coal, nuclear, hydro, biomass, wind, solar and waste.

About Vattenfall’s investments in wood bioenergy

Vattenfall is one of the biggest European stakeholders in the market for global bioenergy and trades a wide range of biomass products on the global market. It operates over 15 power plants entirely or partially operated with forest biomass in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. In 2020 the company sourced a total of 750,000 tonnes of wood chips and pellets. Wood sold to other energy companies has recently been imported from the USA, the Baltic States and Russia. 

The company aims to build new biomass plants in the coming years. In Diemen in the Netherlands a new planned biomass heat plant is supposed to burn 200,000 tonnes of imported wood pellets a year. The construction plans are currently put on hold pending the outcome of a court case against the nature permit for the plant. The plant has been strongly opposed by an environmental campaign group.

Vattenfall plans to increase the amount of wood it burns in Germany nearly six-fold in the power plants in Berlin-Moabit and the Märkisches Viertel plant.

In addition to its investments Vattenfall was part of a group of European energy companies founding the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP). SBP is the single biggest wood pellet certification scheme and has been denounced by environmental NGOs as a smokescreen for greenwashing and “corporate non-accountability”.

Why this profile?

Vattenfall currently burns biomass in over 15 power plants and plans to expand this energy source significantly in the future. In addition, the company also trades wood pellets and wood chips to other energy companies. Wood biomass is labelled by Vattenfall as a sustainable energy source. Nevertheless, burning wood as an energy source releases at least as much CO2 per unit of energy as burning coal. The investments in wood bioenergy put forests under increasing pressure and cause ecological harm to the biodiverse forest ecosystems.

Impacts

Environmental and climate impacts

Climate impacts of wood bioenergy

Vattenfall, owned by the state of Sweden, currently releases twice the amount of CO2 as the whole country of Sweden.

The company aims to expand its investments in wood bioenergy significantly. At the point of combustion burning of biomass emits more CO2 than burning fossil fuels. Nevertheless forest biomass is often labelled as a sustainable energy source and claimed to be carbon neutral based on forest regrowth. This does not take into account that forest regrowth will take decades to centuries. In addition there is no guarantee of full regrowth of the cut forests.

Impacts on forests and biodiversity

Burning wood biomass for energy leads to species extinction and biodiversity loss which are endangering the stability of ecosystems worldwide.

Most of the wood burned by Vattenfall comes from Sweden which is subject to ongoing infringement proceedings by the EU Commission on the ground that “Sweden’s Natura 2000 network is insufficient both as regards habitat types and species under the Habitats Directive”. In addition, according to Sweden’s own reporting under the EU Habitats Directive, 14 out of 15 forest biotopes to be protected have been classified as “bad” or “inadequate”.

All of the wood currently burned in Germany by Vattenfall was sourced domestically. Also German forests are under pressure and suffer from loss of tree cover. Around half of Germany’s entire annual wood harvest is burned for energy, increasing the pressure on forests. 

In addition, Vattenfalls trades wood pellets from the Southeastern USA where wood is routinely sourced from coastal hardwood forests which form part of a Global Biodiversity Hotspot.

Other impacts

Nuclear power plant Forsmark had a serious accident in 2006. Shortly afterwords there was a series of accidents in the German plants Brunsbuettel and Kruemmel. After those accidents Vattenfall tried to conceal important facts and had a negative press because of the misinformation. Vattenfall is promoting nuclear power as an "important part of making electricity clean" despite all negative headlines they are producing with their plants.

Governance

Financiers

Vattenfall uses a EUR 500 million green bond to finance investments in the renewable energy space, in which biomass is included by the company. The financial close took place on 6 March 2020, and the bond arrangers are ING, Danske Bank, NatWest, and Societe Generale. See below for more details.

 

Related projects

Projects

There are no projects active for Vattenfall now.
on record

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News

| |
Type:
Year:
blog
external news
our news

Barclays is big on beef and burning

At Barclays AGM campaigners will be calling on the bank to stop financing big meat and burning fossil fuels and forests for energy
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2020-11-12 | Berlin | urgewald
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2016-11-14 | Marrakech, Morocco | BankTrack, Friends of the Earth France, Market Forces, Rainforest Action Network, urgewald
blog
external news
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Swedish energy company Vattenfall plans sale of German coal operations

2014-10-30 | The Guardian
blog
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BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and ING invest €1.34 billion in coal

FairFin, Climaxi and BankTrack ask for green investments
2014-06-03 | Brussels | FairFin
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Vattenfall abandons CCS research

2014-05-09 | TCE Today
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Fear of change could precipitate demise of Europe’s energy giants

New report illustrates failure to adapt to changing market conditions
2014-02-27 | Brussels | Greenpeace
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Symbolic funeral for coal at the offices of Deutsche Bank, ING & BNP Paribas

4,000 signatures call for banks to stop financing coal power stations
2011-03-01 | Brussels | Netwerk Vlaanderen

Documents

Type:
Year:
ngo documents
2018-11-20 00:00:00

Last Gasp - The coal companies making Europe sick

2018-11-20 00:00:00 | Climate Action Network Europe
ngo documents
2016-04-26 00:00:00

Energy you want? Vattenfall's dark side

2016-04-26 00:00:00 | urgewald
annual reports
2012-11-19 00:00:00

2011 Annual Report

2012-11-19 00:00:00 | Vattenfall
annual reports
2012-11-19 00:00:00

2011 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

2012-11-19 00:00:00 | Vattenfall
ngo documents
2010-06-02 00:00:00

Bankers on Tenterhooks

Climate change: co-funded by banks operating in Belgium
2010-06-02 00:00:00 | Netwerk Vlaanderen
other documents
2009-07-08 00:00:00

How Close Did Sweden Come to Disaster?

2009-07-08 00:00:00 | Philip Bethge and Sebastian Knauer
other documents
2009-02-23 00:00:00

Nuon and Vattenfall join forces to create a leading European energy company

2009-02-23 00:00:00 | Vattenfall
csr policies
2009-01-01 00:00:00

what we want > what we do > what we have achieved

2009-01-01 00:00:00 | Vattenfall

Links

Vattenfall's Environment page

http://www.vattenfall.com/en/environmental-sustainability.htm

Vattenfall

Company website
http://www.vattenfall.com/en/index.htm

Map by Environmental Justice of environmental conflicts linked to Vattenfall

http://ejatlas.org/company/vattenfall

Environmental conflicts linked to Vattenfal Europe Mining AG

http://ejatlas.org/company/vattenfall-europe-mining-ag

Netherlands campaign against new biomass plant

https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2021/netherlands-campaign-against-new-biomass-plant/
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