**Energy giant Fortum is updating its strategy with a return to Nordic roots after the investment fiasco with Germany’s Uniper.**
In line with developments elsewhere in Europe, alongside conventional reactors, the Finnish state-owned (51%) company will ”explore prerequisites” for small modular reactors (SMRs), a technology in which Washington is leading.
In a two-year feasibility study announced on Monday, the company said it would look into the commercial, technological and societal, political, legal and regulatory conditions for a nuclear ramp-up in Finland and Sweden.
Fortum is emerging from a painful investment in Uniper, which Berlin nationalised last month, a move seen in Helsinki as an unavoidable measure and a relief despite heavy losses.
Now Fortum says to achieve competitive construction times and to tackle costs, future ventures are to be based on partnerships between nuclear generating and district heating companies, industrial off-takers of power and heat, nuclear utilities and start-up companies.
Besides conventional reactors, special attention will be given to small modular reactors (SMRs), which according to Laurent Leveugle, leading the work at Fortum, ”are promising in terms of taking nuclear power forward to future generations”.
The most notable SMR solutions already being developed are the ones by Rolls-Royce, GE-Hitachi, and Nuscale. In Finland, LUT University and the Technical Research Centre have a project for a plant with an output of 20-50 megawatts.
**Regulatory hurdles**
However, the existing and outdated legislation with its licensing process may prove to be a hindrance.
Commenting on the issue and Fortum’s plans, Economic Affairs Minister Mika Lintilä (Center) said that revised legislation encompassing smaller reactors is under preparation.
Yes, we should depend on USA for nuclear, that’s a great idea. Only China and Russia can corrupt our elits and pressure us.
I was thinking that Europe was too independent recently.
Let me guess… by combining heat and electricity generation, they will label themselves as co-generation… and thus green power with priority access to the electric grid!
Seems like renewables will have to invest heavily into storage to counter/mitigate this new dynamic.
> Now Fortum says to achieve competitive construction times and to tackle costs, future ventures are to be based on partnerships between nuclear generating and district heating companies
So, I’ve talked about district heating before. Europe has a fair bit. It makes particular sense in the ex-Soviet areas of Europe, as the Soviet Union was especially big on building district heating, so the infrastructure is already there.
In the US, there are only a few cities that have district heating infrastructure, so if one wanted to make use of co-generation, one has to build the heat transport stuff from scratch. And in low-density housing, suburbs, which are particularly common in the US, one has to transport heat further.
>District heating is the most common heating form in Finland. We are forerunners of district heat production and as proportion to the population, Finland is the largest producer of district heating in the Nordics. Heat is produced locally close to the customers.
Ahhhhhh. Okay, that makes sense why they’d be particularly gung-ho on this, then.
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**Energy giant Fortum is updating its strategy with a return to Nordic roots after the investment fiasco with Germany’s Uniper.**
In line with developments elsewhere in Europe, alongside conventional reactors, the Finnish state-owned (51%) company will ”explore prerequisites” for small modular reactors (SMRs), a technology in which Washington is leading.
In a two-year feasibility study announced on Monday, the company said it would look into the commercial, technological and societal, political, legal and regulatory conditions for a nuclear ramp-up in Finland and Sweden.
Fortum is emerging from a painful investment in Uniper, which Berlin nationalised last month, a move seen in Helsinki as an unavoidable measure and a relief despite heavy losses.
Now Fortum says to achieve competitive construction times and to tackle costs, future ventures are to be based on partnerships between nuclear generating and district heating companies, industrial off-takers of power and heat, nuclear utilities and start-up companies.
Besides conventional reactors, special attention will be given to small modular reactors (SMRs), which according to Laurent Leveugle, leading the work at Fortum, ”are promising in terms of taking nuclear power forward to future generations”.
The most notable SMR solutions already being developed are the ones by Rolls-Royce, GE-Hitachi, and Nuscale. In Finland, LUT University and the Technical Research Centre have a project for a plant with an output of 20-50 megawatts.
**Regulatory hurdles**
However, the existing and outdated legislation with its licensing process may prove to be a hindrance.
Commenting on the issue and Fortum’s plans, Economic Affairs Minister Mika Lintilä (Center) said that revised legislation encompassing smaller reactors is under preparation.
Yes, we should depend on USA for nuclear, that’s a great idea. Only China and Russia can corrupt our elits and pressure us.
I was thinking that Europe was too independent recently.
Let me guess… by combining heat and electricity generation, they will label themselves as co-generation… and thus green power with priority access to the electric grid!
Seems like renewables will have to invest heavily into storage to counter/mitigate this new dynamic.
> Now Fortum says to achieve competitive construction times and to tackle costs, future ventures are to be based on partnerships between nuclear generating and district heating companies
So, I’ve talked about district heating before. Europe has a fair bit. It makes particular sense in the ex-Soviet areas of Europe, as the Soviet Union was especially big on building district heating, so the infrastructure is already there.
In the US, there are only a few cities that have district heating infrastructure, so if one wanted to make use of co-generation, one has to build the heat transport stuff from scratch. And in low-density housing, suburbs, which are particularly common in the US, one has to transport heat further.
*googles*
https://www.iea.org/reports/district-heating
> China, Russia and Europe are responsible for more than 90% of global district heat production.
Yeah.
But does Finland?
*googles*
https://energia.fi/en/energy_sector_in_finland/energy_production/district_heating
>District heating is the most common heating form in Finland. We are forerunners of district heat production and as proportion to the population, Finland is the largest producer of district heating in the Nordics. Heat is produced locally close to the customers.
Ahhhhhh. Okay, that makes sense why they’d be particularly gung-ho on this, then.