Fennovoima Ltd is a Finnish nuclear power company established by a consortium of Finnish power and industrial companies. The company does not own any nuclear capacities; however, it is preparing to build the 1200 MW Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant at Pyhäjoki.
Finnish industry, trade and the energy companies in need of their own electricity production started the company in 2007. Originally Fennovoima was created as a partnership between Voimaosakeyhtiö SF, a cooperative producing electricity for its owners' needs at production cost in proportion to their ownership share, with 66% and the German power company E.ON with 34%. After E.ON's withdrawal from Finland, Voimaosakeyhtiö SF briefly owned 100% of Fennovoima shares. According to the agreement with Russian Rosatom, RAOS Voima Oy, a Finnish subsidiary of Rosatom, acquired a 34% stake which previously belonged to E.ON. Although RAOS Voima was prepared to take 49% in the project, Voimaosakeyhtiö SF commits to own more than half of the power plant and aims to increase the share of Finnish companies up to 66%. As of 2014, Voimaosakeyhtiö SF has 44 shareholders. In 2016 Fennovoima is owned by Finnish Voimaosakeyhtiö SF and Rosatom's subsidiary RAOS Voima Oy. Voimaosakeyhtiö SF includes industrial and trading companies as well as local energy utilities which are mainly owned by municipalities.
On 21 April 2010, the Government of Finland decided to grant a permit to Fennovoima for construction of a nuclear reactor. The decision was approved by the Parliament on 1 July 2010. The estimated construction time is six years until 2024. The chosen plant model is Rosatom's pressurized water reactorAES-2006 which is the latest evolution of VVER plant designs. The other bidders for the project were Areva and Toshiba. Fennovoima began direct negotiations with Rosatom in April 2013. On 21 December 2013, Fennovoima and Rosatom Overseas, a subsidiary of Rosatom, signed a plant supply contract. The plant should be commissioned by 2024. On 28 February 2014 Voimaosakeyhtiö SF made the final decision to participate in Fennovoima's nuclear power plant construction. The final investment decision was to be made in 2014. Fennovoima submitted an application at the end of June 2015 including the stakeholder with a 35 percent share of the Russian firm Rosatom and a percent share of Croatian power company Migrit Energija. In August 2015 the public was informed that Migrit Solarna Energija would not be involved in the venture. On 5 August Finnish Prime MinisterJuha Sipilä said that the Fennovoima nuclear power plant will be approved. By then Finland’s third nuclear plant had attained the required 60 percent domestic or EU/EEA ownership level. The new share owners were energy giant Fortum with a 6.6 percent share and the construction firm SRV with a 1.8 percent share, both of them via Voimaosakeyhtiö SF. Also steel manufacturer Outokumpu, whose steelworks in Tornio will be the biggest consumer of Fennovoima electricity, increased its ownership share by 1.8 percent to 14.1 percent.
Critics
In July 2015 less than a third of Finns supported a Fennovoima nuclear plant. According to Greenpeace's critique nuclear electricity is more expensive than alternatives. Financial models predict the plant will produce electricity at no more than €50 per MWh.
