founded 1909 as kungliga vattenfallsstyrelsen headquarters stockholm sweden key people magnus hall president and ceo products electricity generation transmission and sales revenue 171.7 billion kr 2013 1 operating income 6.4 billion kr 2013 1 net income 13.5 billion kr 2013 1 number of employees 31 819 fte 1 2013 subsidiaries nuon energy 67 % website www.vattenfall.com vattenfall is a swedish power company wholly owned by the swedish government . beyond sweden the company generates power in denmark finland germany the netherlands poland and the united kingdom . in january 2016 vattenfall announced that all its swedish nuclear power plants including the newer reactors were operating at a loss due to low electricity prices and sweden s nuclear output tax . it warned that it may be forced to shut all the nuclear plants down and argued that the nuclear output tax should be scrapped . 2 the company s name is swedish for waterfall and is an abbreviation of its original name royal waterfall board kungliga vattenfallstyrelsen . contents 1 history 2 expansion beyond sweden 3 generation 3.1 carbon intensity 4 car seatbelt 5 criticism 6 see also 7 references 8 external links history edit vattenfall then called kungliga vattenfallsstyrelsen or royal waterfall board was founded in 1909 as a state owned enterprise in sweden . 3 4 from its founding until the mid 1970s vattenfall s business was largely restricted to sweden with a focus on hydroelectric power generation . only in 1974 did the company begin to build nuclear reactors in sweden the ringhals 1 and 2 reactors eventually owning seven of sweden s 12 reactors . in 1992 vattenfall was reformed as the limited liability company vattenfall ab . in the years 1990 through 2009 vattenfall expanded considerably especially into germany poland and the netherlands acquiring stakes in h meen s hk 1996 hew 1999 25.1 % stake from the city of hamburg the polish heat production company ew 2000 55 % stake elsam a s 2005 35.3 % stake and nuon 2009 49 % stake . 3 5 in 2002 vattenfall ab and its acquisitions were incorporated as vattenfall europe ag making it the third largest electricity producer in germany . 3 following the expansion period vattenfall started to divest parts of its business in denmark and poland during the years following 2009 in a strategy to focus on three core markets sweden netherlands and germany . write downs on coal fired and nuclear power plant assets in germany and gas power plants in the netherlands were necessary in a difficult market environment with increasing renewable energy market share and due to the german nuclear power phase out decision of 2011 . in summer 2013 vattenfall announced a writedown off the value of its assets by 29.7 billion sek 4.6 billion usd . 6 a major part of these write offs were attributed to nuon energy nv a netherlands based utility that vattenfall purchased at a 97 billion sek ca. 15 billion usd price in 2009 but whose values was depreciating by 15 billion sek ca. 2 billion usd since . 7 the gloomy market outlook of decreasing power prices in combination with increasing risks notably on the contintental market prompted the board to revise the group strategy by splitting its organizational structure into a nordic part and a part with operations in continental europe and the united kingdom as of 2014 . some analysts have perceived this strategic review as a precursor to a partial retreat from continental european activities with a shift of focus towards activities in the scandinavian market . 8 in this context and in response to a local referendum on re municipilization of distribution grids vattenfall agreed on the sale of company owned electricity and district heat grids in hamburg to the city of hamburg in early 2014 . 9 in each of the second quarters of 2015 and 2016 vattenfall filed impairments of sek 28 billion mostly due to lignite power stations in germany . operational financials were satisfactory . 10 outside of sweden vattenfall is known for forcing the soviet government to publicly reveal the chernobyl disaster . the kremlin had tried to cover up the accident for a day but elevated radiation levels at vattenfall s forsmark nuclear power plant forced the kremlin to admit the accident had occurred . 11 vattenfall s headquarters were moved to a new building in solna north of stockholm in autumn 2012 vattenfall s old buildings in r cksta were abandoned in autumn 2012 . they are being converted into flats since . expansion beyond sweden edit vattenfall used to own assets in poland until their divestment in 2011 . here exemplarily a power station in pruszk w near warsaw . in 2006 vattenfall began production of the pilot carbon capture and storage ccs plant at schwarze pumpe germany . in 2007 the lillgrund wind farm off the southern coast of sweden was commissioned and began delivering electricity . vattenfall has power generation branches in sweden germany poland netherlands united kingdom denmark finland ; in germany vattenfall is the electric utility for the states of hamburg mecklenburg vorpommern brandenburg berlin saxony anhalt thuringia and saxony . on 30 september 2016 vattenfall completed the sale of its german lignite facilities to the czech energy group eph and its financial partner ppf investments . 12 generation edit as of 2009 needs update vattenfall generates electricity from fossil fuels 52 % nuclear power 25 % hydropower 21 % and other sources wind power biomass waste 2 % . 13 some of vattenfall s most notable power generation plants include the 110 mw lillgrund wind farm off the coast of malm sweden the world s largest 14 offshore wind farm at thanet uk the nuclear reactors brunsbuttel nuclear power plant 67 % ownership krummel nuclear power plant 50 % ownership brokdorf nuclear power plant 20 % ownership in germany and the forsmark nuclear power plant and ringhals nuclear power plant in sweden . the nuclear power stations of brunsb ttel and kr mmel have been shut down permanently in response to a governmental order in summer 2011 after the fukushima daiichi nuclear disaster . vattenfall also owns a number of lignite and hard coal fired power stations including the j nschwalde power station the boxberg power station the lippendorf power station owned in part and the schwarze pumpe power station . the lippendorf power station has been offered for sale in 2013 . in 2014 vattenfall had a lignite turnover of 2.3 billion and a profit of 647 million but later lost money on lignite as power prices decreased from 40 to 20 mwh . 15 vattenfall also operates biomass coal fired and other power plants in germany the netherlands and denmark . in january 2016 vattenfall announced that its swedish nuclear power plants including the newer reactors were operating at a loss due to low electricity prices and sweden s nuclear output tax . it warned that if it was forced to shut the plants down there would be serious consequences to sweden s electricity supply and argued that the nuclear output tax should be scrapped . 2 carbon intensity edit see also list of european power companies by carbon intensity this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . june 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message year electricity production twh emission gt co2 kg co2 mwh sweden twh kg co2 mwh 2002 166 68.28 411 2003 160 71.47 448 2004 174 69.97 403 2005 175 71.77 410 86.7 5.8 16 2006 165 74.5 450 2007 184 84.5 459 2008 178 81.72 459 2009 175 79.05 452 2010 93.7 416 2011 167 88.6 418 2012 179 85.0 400 2013 181 .7 88.4 412 car seatbelt edit the development of the safety belt is often incorrectly credited to saab or volvo . fatal car accidents were rapidly increasing in sweden during the 1950s . when a study at vattenfall of accidents among employees revealed that the majority of casualties came from car accidents two vattenfall engineers bengt odelgard and per olof weman started to develop the safety belt . their work set the standard for safety belts in swedish cars and was presented to volvo in the late 1950s . 17 criticism edit this article s criticism or controversy section may compromise the article s neutral point of view of the subject . please integrate the section s contents into the article as a whole or rewrite the material . september 2012 3 500 4 000 environmental activists blocking a coal mine and the schwarze pumpe power station to limit climate change ende gel nde 2016 vattenfall s expansion strategy has involved the acquisition of multiple brown coal fired power plants which has been highly controversial in sweden and germany due to the fact that brown coal is among the dirtiest forms of electricity generation . in addition brown coal is strip mined in a process that sometimes forces communities to relocate as mining fields expand . 18 according to greenpeace vattenfall s coal fired power plants account for more than twice as much co emissions as the rest of sweden combined and if counting their swedish owned but foreign located plants as swedish would bring sweden up to fourth most co emitting country counting per capita . in may 2009 vattenfall was voted the winner of the 2009 climate greenwash awards for its mastery of spin on climate change portraying itself as a climate champion while lobbying to continue business as usual using coal nuclear power and pseudo solutions such as agrofuels and carbon capture and storage ccs . 19 vattenfall owns four of the dirty thirty most polluting power stations in europe . the first fire in the transformer of the nuclear power plant kr mmel part owned with e.on in 2007 forced a closure of the power plant for over two years while a short circuit in july 2009 in another transformer led to another closure . due to these incidents the prime minister of schleswig holstein germany peter harry carstensen announced that this will be letzter versuch their last try before complete closure of the facility . 20 vattenfall has been accused of skirting the line of illegality in its effort to maintain ownership of electrical power grids . most recently vattenfall s efforts to maintain ownership of hamburg s power grid by lobbying the ruling spd have drawn criticism . 21 in germany the largely successful berlin energy table alliance united a number of ngos and local groups initiating a referendum on the recommunalization of energy supply in berlin . the referendum took place on november 3 2013 yet slightly missed the quorum . just days ahead of the referendum the senate of berlin however promised to match the citizens initiative s key claim regardless of the referendum s outcome to transfer all end user operations which are currently driven by vattenfall to a public utility company stadtwerk soon to be founded . in january 2016 vattenfall announced that all its swedish nuclear power plants including the newer reactors were operating at a loss due to low electricity prices and sweden s nuclear output tax . it warned that it may be forced to shut all the nuclear plants down and argued that the nuclear output tax should be scrapped . 2 see also edit european transmission system operators list of government enterprises of sweden list of swedish companies scotland norway interconnector vattenfall cyclassics a cycle race in hamburg references edit a b c d annual report 2013 pdf . retrieved 2014 05 19 . a b c vattenfall seeks to return reactors to profitability . world nuclear news . 8 january 2016 . retrieved 11 january 2016 . a b c group history . retrieved 22 june 2011 . katarina buhr ; anders hansson 2011 . capturing