23 March 2023

Today's Top Nordic Green News:

• Sweden’s Absolicon raises SEK 43.5 million to market solar thermal tech to multinationals
• Swedfund invests USD 30 million in Mirova Gigaton Fund to finance solar energy projects in developing countries
• The need for Swedish power grid reform: Debate on the takeover of regional power grids by Svenska kraftnät 

Sweden’s Absolicon raises SEK 43.5 million to market solar thermal tech to multinationals

Swedish solar energy company, Absolicon, has raised SEK 43.5 million in a recent funding round. The funding will be used to market the company's solar thermal technology to multinational companies. The sales of Absolicon's production lines to Egypt and Canada in December 2022 indicate the company's growing competitiveness and importance in the green energy market. Absolicon's robotized production lines can quickly build up a global production capacity to deliver to multinational corporations. Despite the funding success, Absolicon's plan for expansion will be altered due to the issue of the bank crisis, which meant that the funding round was not fully subscribed to. The company will prioritise delivering the two production lines that have been sold, and will decrease the number of simultaneous projects. 

Press Release

Swedfund invests USD 30 million in Mirova Gigaton Fund to finance solar energy projects in developing countries

Swedfund has invested USD 30 million in the Mirova Gigaton Fund to promote solar energy solutions in developing countries through debt financing. Mirova SunFunder East Africa is the investment advisor of the debt fund, which is intended to speed up the transition to clean energy in emerging markets in Africa and Asia Pacific, as well as Latin America and the Middle East. The fund aims to deploy USD 1.2 billion of private debt in sectors such as solar home systems, agri-solar, telecom tower solarization and mini-grids, while also supporting e-mobility, energy efficiency and carbon credit pre-financing. The fund is classified as Article 9 under the European SFDR framework and is committed to achieving several sustainable development goals.

Press Release

The need for Swedish power grid reform: Debate on the takeover of regional power grids by Svenska kraftnät

Sweden's Vindkraftkooperativ (community wind energy) vice-chair, Olivia Andrén, has urged Svenska kraftnät, Sweden's state-owned power grid operator, to take over the management of regional power grids. Andrén argued that the primary problem lies in the regional power grids' lack of capacity rather than electricity production, with difficulties in supplying sufficient power in some parts of the country. She noted that the regional power grid's capacity constraints threaten to compromise Sweden's progress towards a fossil-free society, including the electrification of transportation and production. According to Andrén, it is necessary to take a comprehensive approach to capacity issues across all parts of the electricity grid, with a particular focus on the underserved regional power grids surrounding Stockholm, Uppsala, Malmö and Västerås.

Di

Equinor and RWE sign agreement to develop low carbon hydrogen value chains for energy security and decarbonization in Germany

Equinor and German energy provider RWE have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop large-scale value chains for low-carbon hydrogen. The companies plan to replace coal-fired power plants with hydrogen-ready gas-fired power plants in Germany and build production facilities for low-carbon and renewable hydrogen in Norway, which will be exported through a pipeline to Germany. Equinor and RWE will jointly own the gas power plants, which will initially be fueled with natural gas and then gradually use hydrogen as fuel, with the ambition of fully running on hydrogen when volumes and technology are available. The companies will also develop offshore wind farms for renewable hydrogen production.

Press Release

Eksfin provides guarantees for Scatec's new solar power plant in Brazil, which will also power aluminium industry 

Norwegian export credit agency Eksfin has provided guarantees worth up to USD 71 million to help Norwegian Scatec build a solar power plant in Brazil. The 531 MW facility will supply more than 600,000 households in the country with electricity, as well as providing raw material alumina for Norsk Hydro's aluminium refinery in Para. The project is Scatec's second solar power plant in Brazil and is a part of Norsk Hydro's plans to reduce emissions by 30% by 2030. Eksfin has provided guarantees totalling almost NOK 10 billion (USD 1.2 billion) since 2010 for Scatec's solar projects in emerging markets.

Press Release

Norwegian Everfuel's revenue nearly quintupled in 2022, but losses doubled

Oslo-listed green hydrogen company, Everfuel, saw its revenue almost quintuple last year, reaching EUR 3.98 million compared to EUR 825,000 in 2020. However, this growth came at a cost, with the company's losses doubling to EUR 14.7m in 2021. Everfuel's stock value soared by over 700% after its Merkur listing in late 2020, but 80% of this value has since been lost. The company recently announced a partnership with hydrogen fund Hy24.

E24

What we’re reading

• Janet Yellen pushes for first steps in World Bank reform by April (Financial Times)
• Weakened EU greenwashing rules under attack (Financial Times)
• Insights | “the race is on”: Europe’s net-zero industry act proposal (Seneca ESG)

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