20 January 2023
Statnett: Norway has underestimated future electricity consumption
Norway has underestimated how much electricity they will need in the future according to Statnett, Norway’s power system operator. In a recent report, Stanett outlines and analyses the growth in electricity consumption. According to the report, electricity consumption in ordinary households and businesses will decrease. Instead, growth in consumption will come mainly from the electrification of the oil industry, battery factories and power-intensive industries. Hilde Tonne, the CEO of Statnett, has said, “Our analysis shows that access to new power is the key to both meeting the climate challenges and ensuring future value creation.”
Statnet reports that a base level of 220 TWh of electricity will be needed in 2050, which is 30 TWh more than was estimated a few years ago. For comparison, Norway’s largest wind farm, Fosen Vind, produces around 2.7 TWh per year. At high level and extra-high level, it is estimated that 260 TWh, respectively 300 TWh will be needed. This is dependent on how much development has been made in establishing floating offshore wind farms, which will be a key driver of higher power consumption.
Statnett believes Norway can produce electricity greater than the base level 220 TWh, if new power generation can occur at a sufficiently low cost and the power grid can have sufficient capacity to connect to the new power. Moreover, Stattnett believes they should aim for the higher-level scenario, so that the electricity grid does not hinder societal development and is easier to scale back the network if consumption is less than expected. A lower energy balance in the grid, meaning electricity supply is not meeting energy demand, will result in higher electricity prices relative to other countries and reduced interest in creating new businesses.
kommunikasjon.ntb.no, regjeringen.no, nettavisen.no
Sunroof secures SEK 152 million in growth fund
The investment will be used for SunRoof's global expansion in the Nordics, Germany, Poland and the US. SunRoof has already seen a growth of 300% within 1 year and their team has increased to 150 people - 13 times the number of January 2020.
Sunroof offers a complete solar energy management system for companies and homeowners by combining traditional materials and innovative technology. The key to Sunroof's innovative technology are 2-in-1 solar panels. The SunRoof system also comes with energy storage and a digital platform. The vision of the digital platform is to track the end-to-end process from the customer’s order to operational panels. This platform will launch at the start of 2023. As finding knowledgeable solar panel contractors is also a challenge that solar energy companies face when trying to meet the rising demand for solar energy, SunRoof has made their solar panels installable by roofing contractors.
NIB finances Scania’s investment in electric vehicles
The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) has signed an agreement with Swedish transport company Scania to provide an 8 year loan of EUR 175 million to partly finance the development of electric heavy duty freight vehicles and buses.
Ørsted: preliminary 2022 figure and 2023 forecast
Ørsted presents a preliminary figure of DKK 21.1 billion as the EBITDA profit for 2022. The forecast for 2023 lands at DKK 20-23 billion. The CEO of Ørsted, Mads Nipper, announced that they are pleased with these numbers, considering the unusuals market conditions which are characterised by volatile energy prices and significant increases in inflation.
MoU signed to explore European hydrogen value chain
Australian hydrogen shipping tech developer Provaris has signed an MoU with Norwegian Hydrogen to look into the development of green hydrogen value chain projects in the Nordics. The collaboration aims to ramp up development of a hydrogen value chain covering large scale production and export of hydrogen to key ports in Europe. The MoU features the pair working on a concept design study to review and identify sites and select a preferred location suitable for domestic and export volumes of hydrogen, and a technical and economic review of the production and supply of compressed gaseous green hydrogen to nominated European ports.
Resistance to wind power to become a research project in Sweden
A Swedish research project will depict the popular resistance to wind power. There are national directives that priority should be given to the establishment of wind power in the country, but in the end the issue ends up at the municipal level. “Now we are trying to understand the local conditions, how the municipalities work in the planning process, and above all which conflicts arise,” said Julia Velkova, a professor in technology and social change at Linköping University. She has been interviewing politicians, locals and land owners in Ragunda regarding their input in the wind power establishment in the area. The aim of the research is to investigate the effect of local circumstances, the role different stakeholders have and conflicts that arise during planning the establishment. This research is especially relevant in understanding the recent opposition to more wind power in Ragunda.
SVT Nyheter, Tidningen Näringslivet
Hexicon can connect 7,100 MW of floating wind power to Italy’s power grid
Terna SpA, Italy’s backbone network manager, has approved Hexicon’s application to connect six of seven of their floating wind farms in Italy to the electrical network. The six projects have a combined effect of 7,100 MW. The Swedish company Hexicon operates in Italy via the joint venture company AvenHexicon. Terna SpA will have to make available the required capacity to connect the wind farms.
Nefco finances Tracegrow to scale technology that creates valuable circular economy products
Tracegrow has patented a process that extracts and purifies zinc and manganese from recyclable alkaline batteries and industrial side streams. Zinc and manganese have agricultural fertiliser usages, which are not only more sustainable, but increases crop productivity according to Tracegrow. The technological process has less carbon emissions as neither heat or wastewater is produced, as the process occurs in a closed system. Nefco’s financing will allow Tracegrow to accelerate company growth, increase global expansion and employ more people to the team.
SENS goes ahead with one of Sweden's largest solar power and battery parks, signs a 23-hectare land lease with Filipstad municipality
Sustainable Energy Solutions Sweden Holding AB, SENS, provides solutions that enable the transition to a fossil-free and CO2-neutral energy supply both locally and internationally. SENS has announced that it has signed a lease agreement with the municipality of Filipstad regarding the construction of a solar park with battery storage located outside Filipstad. In total, the entire project is estimated to achieve an effect of 45 MW. A new energy cluster is beginning to form in Filipstad as the SENS project and more initiatives are taking place in the region. The signed lease means that the project is now in a more active development phase, estimated to begin within 6-12 months.
EU Innovation Fund supports Swedish green aviation fuel project
Vattenfall, Shell, Lanzatech and SAS are working together to produce synthetic green aviation fuel, electrofuel. IF supports the project with EUR 80 million. The electrofuel will be produced using fossil free electricity and captured carbon dioxide. The aim is to produce enough electrofuel to cover at least 25% of SAS’ 2030 fuel needs.
Industrial-sized battery electricity storage being built in Ikaalinen, Finland
Swiss company MW Storage is building a 15 MW battery electricity storage facility in Ikaalinen for Finnish energy company Leppäkosken Sähkö. The project will require an investment of EUR 10 million. The storage facility will be connected to Leppäkosken Sähkö’s distribution network. The Finnish new website Kauppalehti believes this project will bring momentum to greater flexibility in the electricity grid, which is critical for the green transition.
Coeli launches new market-neutral hedge fund for the energy transition
Coeli launches a market-neutral hedge fund focused on renewable energy and decarbonisation. The fund will be managed by Joel Etzler and Vidar Kalvoy. Kalvoy said that there has been a significant difference in share price performance between winners and losers in recent years. Therefore, they believe a hedge fund is best for the energy transition as you can own long-term winners and strengthen returns by shorting companies that lack competitive advantages.
What we're reading
- Anglo-US group completes test flight of propeller aircraft powered by hydrogen (Financial Times)
- 50 countries launch the ‘Coalition of Trade Ministers on Climate' (EU)
- Britishvolt: how Britain’s big battery hope ran out of charge (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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