16 May 2022

Cory and Northern Lights announce international carbon partnership to store CO2 emissions from London rubbish on the bottom of the North Sea

Cory (one of the UK’s leading waste management and recycling companies) and Northern Lights (responsible for developing and operating CO2 transport and storage facilities,) announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the realisation of a major carbon capture and storage (CCS) project between the UK and Norway. At an event at the Norwegian Embassy in London, Cory and Northern Lights presented to an audience that included Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway, Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Wegger Chr. Strømmen, Norway’s ambassador to the UK. Under the MoU, Cory and Northern Lights will explore the opportunity to ship carbon from Cory’s energy from waste operations on the River Thames in London to Northern Lights’ subsea carbon storage facilities in Norway. The initial capacity will be 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Subject to market demand, the capacity can be increased to over 5 million or more in later stages of development. Jonas Gahr Støre, Prime Minister of Norway is quoted as saying “No climate scientist can point the way to zero emissions without us succeeding in this.'' 

TV2 & Norlights

Northvolt and Norsk Hydro to expand battery recycling JV in Europe

Northvolt and Norsk Hydro will take their battery recycling joint venture to continental Europe later this year after the Swedish start-up and Norwegian aluminium producer opened their first plant in Norway. Hydrovolt has just started commercial operations for what is Europe’s largest battery recycling plant in the southern Norwegian town of Fredrikstad. The facility can currently handle about 25,000 electric car batteries a year, equivalent to the entire number of cells reaching the end of their life in Norway. Hydrovolt is targeting the recycling of 150,000 car batteries a year by 2025, and half a million by 2030, and is scouring locations in Europe’s biggest vehicle markets such as Germany and France. It is due to choose the plant location later this year and start operations by about 2024. Hydrovolt chose Norway as it has the most mature electric car market in the world, with more than 90& of new sales featuring battery-powered vehicles.

Financial Times

Hexicon sees favourable conditions to focus on Sweden

Wind power developer Hexicon has so far mainly invested in South Korea. But now the political signals are "strong enough" to focus on Sweden. The company will soon aim to apply for a permit for three floating wind farms off the Swedish coast. One is planned in the North Sea, north of Gothenburg and the other two north and southwest of Gotland. As recently as February the government announced that wind power corresponding to almost all Swedish electricity consumption will be expanded in the Gulf of Bothnia, the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. The fact that the floating foundations can be placed much further out to sea now opens up new possibilities. The company's technology is based on two turbines being accommodated on one foundation, which means that more are accommodated in the same water area.

Today's Industry

Ocean Harvesting raises SEK 30 million for offshore experiments with the wave power plant InfinityWEC

To finance offshore experiments with the InfinityWEC wave power plant, Ocean Harvesting is conducting a financing round of SEK 30 million, valuing the company at SEK 70 million. The investment will be combined with public funding for the project. The sea trials are planned to be completed by the end of 2024 and thereafter commercialization of the technology will begin through sea trials of full-scale systems. The market for InfinityWEC is expected to be grid-connected wave power parks on a large scale, stand-alone applications such as oil and gas platforms, island communities, green hydrogen production and fish farms.

Cision

Disappointing hydrogen cut in revised Norwegian budget

The Norwegian government will cut NOK 25 million in measures to promote market development and the establishment of infrastructure for hydrogen, in the proposal for a revised state budget.

The proposal for a revised state budget appears out of step with the government's own supplementary report to the energy report. In it, the government announced an offensive investment in hydrogen. The government appears to be moving in the opposite direction of the EU. “The cut of NOK 25 million will delay the establishment of infrastructure for hydrogen in Norway. There is no doubt about that,” states Ingebjørg Telnes Wilhelmsen in the Norwegian Hydrogen Forum. 

Hydrogen.no

Ramboll wins DKK 370 million framework agreement

The Danish consulting company Rambøll has agreed a framework agreement of DKK 370 million with Energinet, which will help to ensure that the Danish electricity grid in the future can supply the increasing need for electric cars, data centres and power-to-x projects. “An additional goal is to make Denmark independent of foreign gas and thereby contribute to maintaining a high security of supply both in Denmark and Europe” Rambøll writes in a press release. The agreement involves modernising and building Denmark's 100 transformer stations, which will be bottlenecks so that the green wind and solar energy can reach consumers. The total consultancy fee for the modernization and construction of all transformer stations is expected to be more than DKK 1 billion for the entire conversion, and Rambøll has won the first six stations in the last two years.

Building Supply

What we’re reading

• Europe’s Path to Clean Energy: A $5.3 Trillion Investment Opportunity (Bloomberg)
• Landmark NZ Climate Plan Secures Path To Net Zero (Scoop)

---