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ENERGY

Church in Norway forced to close due to energy prices 

A church in eastern Norway has closed its doors to worshippers until the spring due to high electricity prices, with more saying they may have to follow suit. 

Churches in Norway are struggling with surging electricity costs. Pictured is a traditional stave church.
Churches in Norway are struggling with surging electricity costs. Pictured is a traditional stave church.Photo by Stephen Roth on Unsplash

Rjukan Church in Tinn, eastern Norway, has shut up shop except for advent until the spring due to soaring electricity prices, local paper Rjukan Arbeidblad reported this week.

“We are doing it to save electricity. Rjukan Church is made of stone and concrete and is expensive to heat. Electricity has become far more expensive, and we have already used up the electricity budget for 2021,” Susann Myhra Stryvold, guardian for the church, told the newspaper. 

High electricity prices pose a problem to congregations throughout eastern Norway, and several churches told broadcaster NRK they are struggling to keep the lights on. 

“We have already spent 200,000-300,000 kroner more on electricity than last year,” Kjetil Gjerde, trustee of a church in Ringerike, told the public broadcaster

“With today’s electricity prices, we will go 120,000 kroner over our budget this year,” Sigrid Kobro Strensrød, a churchwarden in Larvik, said to NRK. 

READ ALSO: What times of day should you avoid using electricity in Norway? 

It’s a similar story in the capital, Oslo. 

“We do not have the budget to pay current electricity prices. This is a serious situation,” Finn Folke Thorp, communications manager for Oslo’s joint church council said. 

Churches, particularly old stone ones, use massive amount of electricity to heat.

“Large stone churches are expensive to heat, so we have moved some events to other churches and premises,” Gjerde, trustee for a church in Ringerike, explained. 

Thorp says that the closure of some churches in Oslo is being considered should the high prices endure. 

“A radical move we can take is to close some of the churches, but the final decision lies with the churches,” Thorp, who manages communications for Oslo’s church council, said. 

READ ALSO: What are the knock-on effects of rising energy prices in Norway? 

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BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

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