Energy company Nuon on Wednesday announced turnover stable at €2.1bn but profit down 9% at €139m in the first half of 2012.

Profit was affected by a write-down of €700m on the company’s gas-fired power stations which were not at full capacity because of ‘worsening market prospects’.

CFO Peter Smink said in a statement the figures were affected by difficult market circumstances caused by a surplus of production capacity, an abundance of subsidised sustainable energy from Germany and the low CO2 price.

Nuon was bought by Swedish energy company Vattenfall in 2009 for €10bn, thought too high by some experts. So far, Vattenfall has written off €4.3bn on Nuon.