Plugged In: the energy news podcast
Coming from the heart of the Montel newsroom, Editor-in-Chief, Snjolfur Richard Sverrisson and his team of journalists explore the news headlines in the energy sector, bringing you in depth analysis of the industry’s leading stories each week.
Richard speaks to experts, analysts, regulators, and senior business leaders to the examine not just the what, but the why behind the decisions directing the markets and shaping the global transition to a green economy.
New episodes are available every Friday.
Plugged In: the energy news podcast
Navigating regulatory and geopolitical complexity
In this week’s episode we discuss how unprecedented global risks — from escalating trade tensions and hybrid warfare to rising populism — are reshaping Europe's energy markets. Statkraft's CEO Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal shares insights into the company's approach to project prioritisation, reveals why the green transition will inevitably continue despite near-term hurdles and discusses how companies can build local support for renewables amid growing opposition. Birgitte also weighs in on Norway’s controversial market intervention, the fixed-price electricity retail contract, and addresses criticism around regulatory hurdles and delays to new capacity projects.
Host: Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel.
Guest: Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft; Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel.
Podcast editor: Bled Maliqi, Montel.
Hello listeners and welcome to Plugged In - the energy news podcast from Montel. Each week we bring you in-depth analysis and insights from across the energy sector. This week we turn our attention to Norway, Europe's renewable energy powerhouse, and we talk to the chief executive of Statkraft, Europe's leading green energy producer. The country is at a crucial juncture with government-backed fixed price, electricity, contracts, sparking debate both internally and externally. In addition, there are discussions around new developments in hydropower and offshore wind energy sources that will shape the country's energy future. We'll also discuss, Statrafts latest strategic outlook as the company navigates an involving energy landscape. But before then, setting the scene for us is Gert Ove Mollestad , editor Norway at Montel News. A warm welcome Gert.
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Thank you.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:I'd just like to start by asking you in Norway. How has the fixed retail price been received?
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Ha. It's been very widely criticized by economists and market participants and also by some power companies as it. Is maybe one of the biggest interventions in the market since the be since it was liberalized in the early 1990s. So it is it really came as a surprise when it was launched. However, we got more on the details on Monday. And then it's, it is not as bad as originally thought, given that the, they introduces some thresholds, even though they're not set yet what the limitations will be regard to the consumption.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:But the main criticism is as well that it's, there are no incentives to, to reduce demand precisely at peak, at hours of peak use.
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Yeah, precisely. It kills the incentive to save energy. It erodes the market for smart homes and solar panels and other energy efficiency measures. So it but as they introduce they suggested at least. Some thresholds limitations and that will give the consumers some incentive to, to save power at least.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:That's something. And how about amongst Norway Neighbors?
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Ha there is also quite a lot of negative reactions from there. We have seen Denmark, Sweden Finland, and not at least the energy ministers there had been very, what do you say? Disappointed and also very against the proposal from the Norwegian government. So it's been strong reactions, in a very negative manner.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Okay. But that's that's of course worrying because it is, it goes against the grain of the, you know, such interventions against the common Nordic market.
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Absolutely. And and when you see it result, there will be hardly any power saving in the Norwegian households. And they, add up to almost a third of Norway's annual power consumption. So it's, it is a really, a big part of the energy market in Norway that will not react as clearly to market signals. And as before and especially in time of, I don't know, not crisis, but if you have a really dry year, very poor reservoirs levels, then. Prices can really spike. And then you have all the households just consuming power as normal. So it is it's fully understandable that the reactions from abroad has been quite strong.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Yep. And, but it actually has quite broad political support, doesn't it? Not just from the government parties, but or the. Party supporting the government, but also the opposition.
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Absolutely. And we are in an election year now. And could you expect kind of the opposition to be very against such a scheme that we really give a lot of money to consumers? No, they, the government has really done a doing, done a great job here, more or less short circuited the entire energy debate. And I think that's one of the main goals behind all this. They want to calm debate down. Be able to move forward on in the energy debate and and that is, I think that is one of the main drivers behind all this.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. I think it, it would take a very brave politician to say, no, we don't support. Discounted prices to consumers or discounted or stable prices.
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:It's more or less impossible. There, there are some parties who argue that the support scheme should be have a different design to encourage more energy saving. And they do have a fair point, I think. But overall there all they're all more or less everyone is in favor of giving, giving the, a strong support to Norwegian consumers.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Then of course this topic will be off the agenda for the for the election in September.
Gert Ove Mollestad, Editor Norway, Montel:Yeah. Yeah. The goal for the government is to land this or to make it deposit through parliament in June, and then there's nothing to debate, more or less.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Gert thank you very much. Joining me, Richard Sverrisson to explore these topics is Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal, CEO of Statkraft. A warm welcome to you Birgitte.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Thank you so much.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:We are an Oslo at your results presentation where you talked about the current political geopolitical uncertainty. We are facing a global trade war hybrid warfare. Changes in security allowances. Are you concerned, Statkraft is a global company. You have a lot of risks, exposure to a lot of risks around the world. Are you worried at the moment? Birgitte?,
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:I think everyone around the world is a bit worried about what we see in general and as persons. Then for the company. We are really working every day to address these issues, both on the security side. Also how it impacts us. And there I'm more focused on on doing the right things and addressing the issues rather than spending my time being concerned as such.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Okay. How does it impact your business and what can you do to address those concerns?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Well, first of all, it's of course critical that we manage to keep our production up and contribute with energy in all the places that we are. Then the uncertainty obviously will have a potential spillover on the energy demand and subsequently then the energy prices. So understanding sort of the outcome space on the energy prices is important for us. And also, trade barriers, tariffs, it's never positive for cost and competitiveness. So increasing costs on spare parts, on solar panels, transformers, et cetera, is also part of the things we are monitoring.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. You said in your in the results. Press release that you would prioritize even more strictly the short term among projects in your large portfolio project. What did you mean by that?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:No, I mean that with the uncertainty that we see with the moment the outcome space on tariffs on gas. Prices, gas supply it calls for a bit of a cautious approach in the short term, right? It's about making sure that we keep our activities solid for the long run. And then, what we see now is unprecedented in, in, in many decades. Seeing exactly how that plays out takes a bit of time.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:I know. Developments are changing almost by the hour. It's it's a very sort of rapid emerging kind of situation. Geopolitically, it's that obviously doesn't help but how but there's, I sense also from you Birgitte, that there's not, there's no sense about backtracking or putting the brakes on the energy transition. It's more about focusing on given the geopolitical context is like highlighting certain areas which we wanna focus more on than others.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Yes. And in our also analysis work, like the green transition scenarios that we are doing we see that with all this geopolitical uncertainty, the energy transition will be delayed. It will not stop. And I think it's important there to differentiate between mature technologies like solar batteries, wind power that is still coming on stream at the very high pace versus the less mature technologies that are probably delaying more given the uncertainty and the cost increases that we see around the globe.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:And the less mature, do you mean like battery storage projects, things like that. So green hydrogen.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Green, hydrogen. Offshore wind to some extent, CCS, like all the elements that still need to get scale in order to drive cost efficiencies.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. Another, a worry is also a rise of populism across Europe. We've seen, an opposition to renewables. You know, how can Statkraft contribute to engaging consumers or citizens in the energy transition? It's not only purely your responsibility, of course, but how can you contribute?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Well, we are doing a lot across our markets to become more visible, talk about the energy transition, maybe try to take away some misunderstandings around what's happening. But you're right, it is trend and we also need to do our part showing that renewable is of course contributing to reducing the climate change. But that, as you say, has a bit more opposition at the moment, but also that it's very important for energy security and that is also important for the competitiveness of Europe. And that is also a bit what the opposition is about, right? That losing jaw. Things are happening, but we can contribute also to making industry in Europe more competitive.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:But how about in, in where areas where there's opposition to new windcraft or solar plants how can you know companies such as yourself engage with local residents to assuage them of their, of the fears?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Yeah. We do that locally where we develop projects, and we've also seen shifts in how that kind of opposition is happening in, in. In, for instance, Ireland. We've seen a trend from a lot of local opposition to the acknowledgement in in the population that renewable is contributing. And maybe with more renewable on ground, you also get more used to it and understand how it impacts you while before you see it. It's more uncertainty. In Norway, in one of our projects, Inam, our projects developer have had. Hundred stakeholder meetings locally. We also actually digitally demonstrate from your house. How does the wind farm look like from your angle, your house? We go and visit the people that are closer. So I would say that we do a lot, but of course it's locally where the projects are and. We can't reach the whole world, although we try to renew the world the way it's powered.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Sure. But you're certainly engaged with the local community and I think that's very reassuring. I think, I'd like to move on to a different, which is related to populism. I think brige in, there's Norway. Potentially it was the largest market intervention since liberalization, the government introduced fixed price to electricity contracts to, to say stabilize consumer costs. What's your view on this policy?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:First of all. I think it's important to acknowledge that consumers have felt the kind of wallet, both the high prices, but also the volatility and the short term volatility in the market, and that creates uncertainty. And in that aspect, I think the sort of fixed price contract is a good measure to, to support. We are very happy that this also supports the underlying market, which we think is it's critical to keep the underlying electricity market. And this will support that. And as we see it per now, we don't believe it'll have a major impact, neither on cost or volumes.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Okay. In a way it's obviously quite good for Statkraft. You can produce a as much as you really want in a sense, but there has been criticism that you know, it does little to reduce incentives on, provide incentives to reduce demand or innovation such as heat pumps and solar panels. So do you have a view on this or?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:I know there is still work ongoing on that. And of course even if you pay forty øre, or if you pay something else, you still have an incentive to reduce demand. It's more in, in which hours. And there are maybe other mechanisms for that. And then I just would say that what is good for Statkraft is good for Norway because we are owned by the government. We pay our taxes and our dividends, and of course that is distributed back also to consumers.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:But I think I, I don't really wanna put you on the spot here or anything but in, in the Pan Nordic market, it's received quite a lot of criticism as well. Do you understand the concerns of the neighbors, particularly Sweden, Denmark, I think, have been quite vocal in their opposition to this kinda market intervention.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Yeah. But I think the point is that it's not the big market intervention, actually. It's keeping the market. It's it's protecting the market. It's protecting the exchange with the other countries. But all elements has dilemmas in it. But I don't think that it would be an alternative to not do anything with the volatility that we see in the market. Despite that the power prices now have come down to much more normalized levels.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. I think that's the key prices are falling and with the more renewables coming into the system, they're likely to re to remain low. But isn't there element as well in. Any kind of day ahead market that's reliant on the weather, you're gonna see a lot of volatility. And that's just the nature of these markets. Exactly. And as a matter of also explaining to consumers that's what's happening and finding, enabling them to find solutions to deal with that volatility. Yeah, potentially.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:And the newspaper don't find it that engaging to write when the price is very low or zero as they do when it's suddenly very high in one hour. And of course, that creates a bit of, skewed understanding of where we are on more average prices.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. I'll just come to the defense of journalists , at Montel News, we are slightly different. We do also focus very much on, on low prices and
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Thank you. But you don't have all the consumers as readers.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:No, exactly. No. That is very true. Now how do you what do you think the outlook for new capacity in can new capacity build in Norway? What plans do you have here? Birgitte?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:So for Statkraft, we announced last year an ambition to do capacity upgrades of our current hydropower fleet. Meaning that for some of our power plants where we have production in many hours during the year, that we will increase the capacity and can have them more flexibility that alone will not contribute to a lot of new. Energy as such but allow for matching with wind power and solar power and intermittent energy. Then we are also working on wind power projects in Norway and also in Sweden and UK and Germany and other markets, around Norway where we can see energy coming also into the market. And that is also important for the market as a whole, I think, to see to a large extent additional hydropower in Norway will be more on the capacity side. While if we need or want more new energy we need to look to other sources.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Is there, there's been a lot of criticism about the amount of red tape and bureaucracy, the administrative hurdles that people need to, companies such as yourselves need to jump through in order to build new capacity. Is there any way of speeding that up? Is that something that's a big hurdle here because, the context is that there are very big forecast from someplace like TSOs who say, oh, demand is gonna rise quite exponentially with data centers. The rise of ai. But supply can't keep up. Is there a way of accelerating those kind of supply mechanisms coming in to do that?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:There has to be a balance here. We believe so. We have to have proper processes. If not, we will just get a big opposition at the end. So we need to respect and run proper processes, but where possible, it's to reduce the time. Through the process is important. And then in particular, if you look at new wind power where you now have both the concession process with NVE in Norway and then you have the process with the municipalities, we have encouraged to align those processes and make sure that we can do things in the same steps, that they can use the same reports and processes, et cetera, so that we don't double up on the work because that, as you say will lead to delays and we need to speed up.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:And are there any other challenges? I mean, you mentioned that, earlier on about the supply chain issues potentially in, in a global market. Are there any other challenges in building rolling out new capacity in Norway and beyond?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:There are always challenges, but there are also opportunities on how we see it across our markets. We have a significant portfolio of of projects and a lot of opportunities to invest in. Of course, global supply chains is a challenge, but also we've seen lately sort of prices coming down for the competitive industries and I think when you sit in Norway, I think one thing that we, not necessarily. Kind of as a general public, see as much is how fast the energy transition is going in Europe and beyond how much growth there is every year in new wind and solar capacity.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:New records are hit every year and check both in generation and installed capacity. Exactly. That Sometimes you're right, that sometimes does get forgotten. I think there, the bright spots and maybe us journalists like myself are always something to blame to focusing on other sides. Yeah. Let's talk about your recent acquisitions. You recently bought a Spanish company called Enerfin. Can you explain that? Why in Spain and why that company?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Yeah. We acquired a portfolio of mainly wind power in production and also projects under development. The key assets were in Spain and in Brazil. We also acquired some other countries that we have announced and that we are working on. On selling off. This is about building scale in some key markets for us. Like in Brazil and in Spain. We are now in top 10 in, in, in both markets. And that makes us more competitive, more cost efficient and also looking at sort of our portfolio in particularly in Spain was very skewed towards solar. And now we have a good mix between solar and wind, which is good, related to production profile, prices, et cetera.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Are you worried at all about some of the issues, local issues in Spain, such as curtailments of generation or negative prices? Is that something that concerns you there?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:In, in the short term? These are of course issues and they are issues in many of our markets. Personally, I believe that when you have these issues they will be addressed and this will improve over time. So for instance, with with negative or low prices, we will install batteries. Others will do that. Spain have vast renewable resources and will probably attract industries that will compensate. So it is of course. In a way, a challenge, but it also the good thing with the market is that it shows where there are fundamental sort of challenges in the market. And then I'm sure that over time that will be addressed.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. And then there's probably a nice place to, to visit when you need to see, visit your subsidiaries in Brazil or Spain is maybe a little bit different from going to the west coast of Norway or something.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:I love going to the west coast of Norway as well, but I love visiting all our sites and all our people and all our assets around the globe.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Looking ahead, what would you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for Statkraft in 2025 and beyond?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:It's that the challenge and opportunities are in a way similar, but with the opposite sign. So the challenge is of course, what we see geopolitically and how that impacts the revenues and thereby our investment capacity. It's just a lot of uncertainty. Where we are now. But the opportunity is that we have a large portfolio of projects that we can invest in across our markets. We view them as profitable. And on top of that, we have a very solid hydropower fleet. It's very solid assets portfolio. That is flexible, low cost generating value, and we have a very strong markets activity that also generates a lot of value for us and also supports industry and developers in providing fixed price contracts. So, renewable is the future. So it's really we are in the right spot. And then it's just how do we navigate in the uncertainties that we see.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Absolutely. And I think what's your personal role here, Birgitte? How do you see your role in enabling that, that journey for Statkraft?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:My personal role is of course both to motivate and engage our employees. It's navigating the uncertainty and also position Statkraft towards all stakeholders so that we have the best the operating environment that we can have.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:So in, in 20 years time, how would you like to be remembered as the CEO of Statkraft?
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Good question. I would like to be proud of the development of the company, seeing that we have established more scalable positions in many markets that we've had developed a strong safety culture, and that we continue to have employees that thrive working for Statkraft and that are proud of the company.
Richard Sverrisson – Editor-in-Chief, Montel:Perfect. Birgitte, thank you very much for being a guest on Plugged In - the energy news podcast from Montel.
Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal – CEO, Statkraft:Thank you so much for the invitation.
