Oh those wacky Finns. Today they celebrate “Älä osta mitään -päivää” or (very loosely translated) “Don’t buy a lot of crap that you don’t actually need today”. Started back in 1993 to counter the effects of the Black Friday consumerism frenzy which was spreading to Europe. I don’t know how successful the pushback is but if they wanted to buy a lot of crap they could better afford it probably with their electricity prices which have dropped to a record low. From Business Insider ” A jaw-dropping blunder in Finland’s electricity market temporarily sent prices into chaos today — and could result in Finns actually being paid to use electricity. Finnish energy company Kinect Energy admitted it accidentally offered to sell a huge amount of power for delivery tomorrow, over 5,700 megawatts an hour, far more than it could actually provide. As a result, the price of electricity plummeted to negative €203 per megawatt-hour on Nord Pool, the Nordic region’s electricity exchange. Essentially, power was priced as literally cheaper than free in Finland for the day.” Helsingen Sanomat interviewed Finns who indicated they would take advantage of the windfall by running their saunas all day long, charging all their electric vehicles and running their ovens all day long in a frenzy of baking – diligently pursuing chores at home. So they won’t actually have time to go shopping. The last time the price of electricity went negative in Finland was back in May when a new nuclear reactor finally went on line and the price of electricity also plummeted. The markets will correct quickly I suspect and electricity will once again be at its regular price. My image is “The Hand of Perkūnas” by the artist Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
Very interesting & a beautiful piece of art! Thanks much for sharing it!