10 February 2023
Denmark’s Climate Minister dismisses nuclear power definitively
Denmark's Climate Minister, Lars Aagaard (M), has stated in an interview with the newspaper Børsen that traditional nuclear power in Denmark is a “no go”. Aagaard points out that nuclear power has high costs and a lack of market demand, and stresses that solar and wind power are cheaper.
In addition, a Danish report from 16 university researchers concluded that nuclear power is “too slow and too expensive” for the green transition. While costs for solar and wind energy have been falling, costs for nuclear energy have been rising. Moreover, even with a 60-year lifetime for a nuclear power plant, the cost of electricity generated from new nuclear power plants in Western Europe is roughly twice as high as that from Danish wind and solar cell plants.
Finland sets strategy to become leader in EU’s emission-free hydrogen economy
Finland’s government has approved a decision to become a leading country in the European hydrogen economy by producing at least 10% of the EU’s emission-free hydrogen by 2030. The country plans to invest EUR 10 billion in fossil free hydrogen projects.
According to the Minister of Industry, Mika Lintilä, hydrogen fuel must be produced primarily for domestic needs. Currently, Finland lacks the infrastructure to meet the domestic market demand. Also, producing fossil-free hydrogen requires large amounts of renewable energy, which Finland is already aiming towards, especially when it comes to wind energy. While wind farms are expanding rapidly, there is still resistance, but job opportunities have been able to change the minds of wind opponents.
"Clean, reliable and cheap electricity is Finland's trump card in the hydrogen economy. The increasing electricity production also means new transmission lines where it is very important that the landowners are treated fairly when they are built," says Lintilä. Therefore, Finland's renewable energy development offers a competitive advantage to establishing a hydrogen economy. However, regulations and financial incentives still need to be developed so that hydrogen investments can prosper.
Sweden regulates to meet EU regulations on fast-track approavals
In light of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, a time-limited EU regulation entered into force on 30 December 2022 to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy. The new regulation affects the handling of solar energy installations, upgrades of existing renewable energy facilities and the installation of heat pumps with an electrical capacity of less than 50 MW, and will apply until 30 June 2024. The regulation states that permits for solar energy equipment placed on buildings or other structures that are not built solely for solar energy must have a processing time of a maximum of three months. Under the regulation, Sweden has the possibility to limit restrictions on technology and geographical locations of projects, but no restrictions have been made as of yet.
Sweden’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2022: Peter Carlsson
Peter Carlsson, the co-founder and CEO of Northvolt, was selected as Sweden’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 and will go on to represent Sweden in the world finals in Monaco. The jury selected Peter Carlsson because of his bold, global and strong vision, which he has been able to sell extremely well. Since 2016, when Carlsson and Cerruti funded Northvolt with the aim to power the world with clean, renewable energy through lithium-ion batteries, the company has taken orders of over SEK 550 billion and acquired global manufacturers as customers like Volkswagen, BMW, Scania and Volvo.
Swedish Absolicon obtains two orders in record time
Absolicon, a Swedish solar heat provider, has signed two agreements for two solar collector production lines with a total value of SEK 86 million. Both agreements, with Creative Power Solutions in Cairo and with Canadian Phoenix Solar Thermal, were signed in December 2022. The company has now decided to carry out a rights issue of SEK 120 million to further profitability, helping meet their sales target of SEK 100 million for 2023.
PowerCell: Quarter report 4Q 2022
PowerCell’s sales increased by 79% and its gross margin increased to 56.8% in 2022. This growth was driven by increased royalties from Robert Bosch GmbH and by the sales driven by their agreement with ZeroAvia, the world's first contract for serial delivery of fuel cell stacks to the aviation industry. Richard Berkling, the CEO of PowerCell, attributes the company’s growth and success to their concept of “Industrialised Innovation”, which combines core technology capabilities with customer-specific adaptations and integrations. PowerCell’s 2022 growth provides a good foundation on which the company can capitalise on current sustainability megatrends.
What we're reading
- EU vows to counter China and US in green subsidy fight (Financial Times)
- Putin has ‘lost the energy war’, top trader claims as he ends bets on high gas price (Financial Times)
About Nordic Green News
The Nordic countries are some of the most dynamic and successful economies in the world. They are also leaders in sustainability, from renewable energy, biofuels, carbon capture and storage and the hydrogen economy, circular economy business models and battery development, the Nordics are pioneers in policy design, technology development and consumer uptake. Mundus Nordic Green News is covering this transition for the international community. Every day we curate the stories of most relevance to international businesspeople and policy experts from the flow of news. Mundus Nordic Green Indices summarise the meta-data from our daily coverage to enable easy tracking of trends. We supplement these with our own opinion pieces and commentary.
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