Cold weather and low winds have pushed spot electricity prices sharply higher this year, briefly topping 80 cents per kilowatt-hour on 3 February.
At more than twice their recent average, such prices have favoured households on fixed-rate contracts over those exposed to the market, Helsingin Sanomat explains.
The paper compared electricity bills in three households under spot-priced contracts and fixed-rate contracts.
Last year, spot pricing proved cheaper in every case, according to HS. However, in early 2026, fixed-rate contracts gained the upper hand, as elevated wholesale prices punished those exposed to the market.
Customers on spot contracts say they try to use power when it's cheapest, but that isn't always practical. In households with kids, such optimisation has turned out to be easier promised than practised, according to HS.
Thirsty AI
The data centres that power today's AI services consume vast quantities of water for cooling. That poses a growing threat in regions already short of it. In parts of the United States and Latin America, these facilities now compete directly with residents for drinking water.
Finland, by contrast, is swimming against the current, reports Hufvudstadsbladet. Although water is plentiful here, Finnish data centres are designed to minimise its use.
At Telia's data centre in Pitäjänmäki, much of the excess heat is fed into the district heating network rather than cooled with drinking water.
"Finland is undoubtedly one of the best places to build data centres, and they are constructed far more sustainably here," Erkki Mervaala, a researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke), told HBL. "That does not, however, eliminate all the problems associated with them."
Inhouse problems
Kauppalehti suggests that barriers within the EU's single market inflict far greater economic damage than any tariffs imposed on the bloc by outside countries.
EU leaders meet this week to shore up the single market in a fraught geopolitical and economic landscape.
A fresh report on the bloc’s internal market offers an unflattering picture. Europe is falling behind just as America and China accelerate their economic lead on almost every measure. Trade in goods between member states accounted for 23.5 percent of GDP in 2023. By 2024, that share had slipped to 22 percent.
The real question, according to KL, is whether Europe's largest countries — chiefly Germany — are prepared to surrender national interests that stand in the way of the continent’s industrial renewal.
