14 February 2022
Norwegian Industry frustrated by political goals: “Completely unrealistic to achieve them”
Stein Lier-Hansen, Leader for Confederation of Norwegian Industry (NO: Norsk Industri, NHO) has launched sharp criticism of politicians in Norway over their efforts to meet climate targets and called the likelihood of achieving goals 'completely unrealistic’. The Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise is an employers' organisation in Norway with more than 30,000 members, and considerable political power. Lier Hansen attacks the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels stating “It's not possible. Politicians must acknowledge that. They have no chance with the pace they now have,” he continues, stating “Politicians have big goals, but in practical politics it is too slow. In the remaining eight years, it is not possible to implement the necessary technological changes.” He refers, among other things, to the government's offshore wind plan which was presented this week. “It is well and good, but the problem is that it was only half of what it should have been: The intention was that it should provide 3,000 MW, but they ended up at 1,500MW because they have to investigate further. It may be that it was politically necessary, but technically it was not. I'm tired of this. We were involved in studying offshore wind already in 2007. Nothing has happened yet.”. In his view there is another big challenge that stands in the way of the green transition: “There is not enough electric power in Norway or in the countries around us to bring about this green technological transformation. The EU countries reduced their own power production, nuclear power and coal power.” He claims the EU now understands that wind and solar cannot on their own fill the gap in demand and adds his voice to the growing lobby for an increase in nuclear energy insisting “new technology makes it much safer to invest in nuclear power again. When the Finns opened their last nuclear power plant on Christmas Eve, it was with a completely different technology than the one that created problems in Chernobyl and Japan. Nuclear power is the future” he concludes.
Sweden falls behind in rollout of rechargeable cars’ charging hubs
Sales of rechargeable cars continue to accelerate, but lengthy permit processes mean that Sweden has lagged behind in the expansion of public charging locations. Sweden is no longer a pioneering country when it comes to building public charging stations, and according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association, Sweden is not even in the top 5 of EU countries with the most charging points per 100 km of road. "The reason why we fell behind is not because there is a lack of public funding, but rather because of shortcomings in the bureaucratic processes," explained Mattias Bergman at Bil Sweden. And although work is underway in the Riksdag to facilitate a quicker processing of permits, Monica Haider (S), member of the Business Committee, noted that it was difficult to influence municipal building permit processes.
European Energy buys 50% of large Danish offshore wind project
In July last year, European Energy and Sønderborg Forsyning entered into a collaboration on the development and establishment of the offshore wind farm in Lillebælt Vind. The parties have gone a step further with European Energy buying into Lillebælt Vind, and now owns half of the company. “They are the most advanced in the development of solar and wind energy, and we can benefit greatly from their competencies. We are a good match for each other and European Energy is completely focused on the progress of the project”, says Director of Sønderborg Forsyning, Hans Erik Kristoffersen. Lillebælt Vind is planned to have a capacity of 160 MW, but how many wind turbines the project will consist of is not yet known. The project is still in the initial phases and is missing an environmental approval that Sønderborg Forsyning expects to have in place by the beginning of 2023.
According to the plan, the turbines in Lillebælt Vind will be operational in 2027.
Ørsted makes final investment decision to build 130 MW of wind power in New York
South Fork Wind, a 50/50 joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource, has made a final investment decision to build the 130 MW offshore wind project. "I'm very pleased that we can now make our first, final investment decision on an offshore wind project in the United States, taking the lead in the transition and helping New York meet its ambitious goals for offshore wind," said Martin Neubert, Commercial Director and Deputy CEO for Ørsted. When the offshore wind farm is completed by the end of 2023, it will be able to produce enough renewable energy to supply 70,000 households with green electricity. In January, South Fork Wind received the final permit from the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), and thus the project was finally approved.The park is located approx. 56 km east of Montauk Point off the coast of Long Island in the state of New York.
Vattenfall gets approval for 2 new UK projects
On Friday, a permit was issued for the offshore wind farm ‘Norfolk Vanguard’. Earlier last week the British government also approved the sister project ‘Norfolk Boreas’, according to a press release from Vattenfall. The decision means that the entire Norfolk Offshore Wind Zone project has now been approved. When the two projects are put into operation, with a total capacity of 3.6 GW, the zone will support the British Government's plans for 40 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. The projects will produce electricity for the equivalent of 3.9 million British households per year. Vattenfall described the Vanguard and Boreas projects as “industry-leading projects whose design is coordinated to minimise the impact on the environment and communities”.
Lantmännen buys Scandbio
Scandbio is Sweden's largest company producing solid processed wood fuels. The company is headquartered in Jönköping and operates at five facilities in Sweden and one in Latvia. Scandbio manufactures, markets and sells wood pellets for incineration in Sweden, Denmark and the Baltics. The company supplies industries as well as municipal and state operations, local contractors and individual homeowners with 100% renewable energy. Scandbio was formed in 2014 when Lantmännen and Finnish Neova merged their operations. Since 2014, both owners have owned equal shares in the company, which has been run as a joint venture. This situation is now changing and the company will, after the approval of the competition authorities, be wholly owned and operated under the auspices of Lantmännen. “Scandbio has great potential to continue to develop positively in a sustainable industry”, comments Magnus Kagevik, COO and Head of the Energy Division, Lantmännen.
SaltX instals Calix Charging reactor
The energy storage company SaltX Technology has successfully installed and commissioned a charging reactor from the Australian company Calix Limited (ASX: CXL) at SaltX's pilot plant in Bollmora, Stockholm. Preliminary tests from the pilot plant's charging reactor show promising results.
SaltX has developed a technology that enables efficient energy transfer, to utilise the surplus of renewable energy, which is not always planned, and to move its availability to the evening and winter periods when demand is high. To charge SaltX's patented energy storage solution, the company uses a charging reactor from Calix. During the past year, SaltX has designed, built and installed a pilot plant in Bollmora. The goal of the pilot project is to optimise the function and develop the technology from SaltX's previous pilot projects in Berlin. Through the collaboration with Calix, SaltX has succeeded in establishing an industrial technology for charging the energy storage with a heat transfer capacity three times higher than compared to previous installations.
What we’re reading
- Singapore Airlines to buy ExxonMobil's sustainable fuel in push to cut emissions (Reuters)
- Can Saudi Arabia become the world’s biggest hydrogen producer? (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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