Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, gas prices in Europe spiked by a factor of 10, driving a wave of bankruptcies and restructurings of European energy companies. Uniper was one of those.
Uniper is one of Germany's largest energy companies. It is active across more than 40 countries and has 19.5 GW of power generation capacity to its name. It was one of the funders of the built-but-never-used Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Russia to Germany and, for most of its history, was heavily reliant on Russian gas.
So when the gas taps from Russia were turned off, Uniper reported losses of $40 billion — the highest losses in German corporate history — and was subsequently nationalised by the German government.
The company has since returned to profitability under its new CEO, Michael Lewis, our guest this week on Cleaning Up.
Michael Lewis joins Michael Liebreich to discuss the Uniper’s rise from the ashes, how it plans to reach its climate targets, and how to overcome the dunkelflaute.
Leadership Circle:
Cleaning Up is supported by the Leadership Circle, and its founding members: Actis, Alcazar Energy, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP of Portugal, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information on the Leadership Circle, please visit https://www.cleaningup.live.
More from Cleaning Up:
• The Sierra Leone Special: youtu.be/z-5QjSfy2SM
• Ep164 — Leonhard Birnbaum, CEO of EON: youtube.com/watch?v=pa-DHuPNEDg
• Episode 175 — Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy: youtube.com/watch?v=Gl-cRh35Hm4
• Episode 190 — Lord Adair Turner: youtube.com/watch?v=xxTngGxpeW0
Chapters:
00:00 - Coming Up
00:45 - Introduction
01:47 - Who is Michael Lewis & Uniper
07:30 - Why Uniper Went Bankrupt
11:20 - Paying the German Government Back
16:10 - Decarbonising Uniper & Germany
18:50 - Uniper's Portfolio
23:40 - Overcoming the Dunkelflaute
28:00 - New Tech for the Dunkelflaute
34:14 - Is There An Affordability Problem?
38:30 - Hope From The Wind Industry
45:00 - Is 95% Decarbonised Good Enough?
49:00 - Green Hydrogen, Any Good?
54:30 - Outro
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, gas prices in Europe spiked by a factor of 10, driving a wave of bankruptcies and restructurings of European energy companies. Uniper was one of those.
Uniper is one of Germany's largest energy companies. It is active across more than 40 countries and has 19.5 GW of power generation capacity to its name. It was one of the funders of the built-but-never-used Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that connects Russia to Germany and, for most of its history, was heavily reliant on Russian gas.
So when the gas taps from Russia were turned off, Uniper reported losses of $40 billion — the highest losses in German corporate history — and was subsequently nationalised by the German government.
The company has since returned to profitability under its new CEO, Michael Lewis, our guest this week on Cleaning Up.
Michael Lewis joins Michael Liebreich to discuss the Uniper’s rise from the ashes, how it plans to reach its climate targets, and how to overcome the dunkelflaute.
Leadership Circle:
Cleaning Up is supported by the Leadership Circle, and its founding members: Actis, Alcazar Energy, Davidson Kempner, EcoPragma Capital, EDP of Portugal, Eurelectric, the Gilardini Foundation, KKR, National Grid, Octopus Energy, Quadrature Climate Foundation, SDCL and Wärtsilä. For more information on the Leadership Circle, please visit https://www.cleaningup.live.
More from Cleaning Up:
• The Sierra Leone Special: youtu.be/z-5QjSfy2SM
• Ep164 — Leonhard Birnbaum, CEO of EON: youtube.com/watch?v=pa-DHuPNEDg
• Episode 175 — Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy: youtube.com/watch?v=Gl-cRh35Hm4
• Episode 190 — Lord Adair Turner: youtube.com/watch?v=xxTngGxpeW0
Chapters:
00:00 - Coming Up
00:45 - Introduction
01:47 - Who is Michael Lewis & Uniper
07:30 - Why Uniper Went Bankrupt
11:20 - Paying the German Government Back
16:10 - Decarbonising Uniper & Germany
18:50 - Uniper's Portfolio
23:40 - Overcoming the Dunkelflaute
28:00 - New Tech for the Dunkelflaute
34:14 - Is There An Affordability Problem?
38:30 - Hope From The Wind Industry
45:00 - Is 95% Decarbonised Good Enough?
49:00 - Green Hydrogen, Any Good?
54:30 - Outro
