24 April 2023

Today's Top Nordic Green News:

• Danish EWII invests in giant batteries to support renewable energy transition
• Sweden inaugurates world's first factory for recycling pure salts from fly ash

Danish EWII invests in giant batteries to support renewable energy transition

EWII, the Danish energy group, is investing in giant batteries with a total capacity of 47MW and 62.7 MWh distributed over several locations in Denmark. The investment includes Denmark's largest battery system of 30 MW, which will be placed on Bornholm at the high-voltage station near Hasle. The battery system can store large amounts of green electricity and has the capacity to keep the entire island's electricity grid running for an hour. The group has also entered into an agreement with Hitachi Energy to supply the large battery energy storage system. The battery on Bornholm is expected to be put into operation in the summer of 2024.

Press Release

Sweden inaugurates world's first factory for recycling pure salts from fly ash

The world's first factory for recycling pure salts from fly ash has been inaugurated by Sweden's Climate and Environment Minister, Romina Pourmokhtari. Ragn-Sells, an environmental company, opened a factory that extracts valuable salts with a 90% lower climate footprint than traditional methods. The Ash2Salt technology extracts up to 200 kg of salt per tonne of ash, which can be used for fertilisers and road salt. The fly ash is a by-product of waste incineration. 

Pourmokhtari, has highlighted the importance of transitioning to a circular economy in achieving Sweden's goal of net-zero emissions by 2045, during the inauguration speech. Pourmokhtari emphasised that the extraction and processing of materials contribute to half of global greenhouse gas emissions and have a significant impact on the environment, therefore reducing the use of virgin materials and promoting the reuse of raw materials is crucial. 

Press Release

Climeon's biggest customer in liquidation, resulting in multi-million write-down

Climeon, a Swedish energy technology company, made a rights issue in June 2022, but Di reports that the company's biggest customer was already in liquidation at that time. The annual report for Varmaorka in 2021 revealed that liquidation was chosen due to insufficient new investment from shareholders. Baseload Capital agreed to cover operating costs during liquidation from June 1, 2022. In November 2022, Climeon took a multi-million write-down due to the liquidation of Icelandic geothermal power company Varmaorka, in which Climeon was indirectly a shareholder and which had placed a large order for Climeon modules. Varmaorka's largest owner was Baseload Capital, a Swedish financing company of which Climeon owns 12%. The issue prospectus stated the risks of revenue from Varmaorka, but Climeon claims it proceeded based on the information it had at the time. Sales have never taken off for Climeon, and the market value is currently around SEK 344 million.

Di

BASF Innovation Hub Nordics: Finnish startup BroadBit Batteries wins first place

The European multinational chemical provider BASF has recently selected their top 5 startups for their BASF Innovation Hub Nordics. 

The Finnish startup BroadBit Batteries won first place. BroadBit Batteries is a technology company developing new batteries based on novel sodium-based chemistries for next generation electric vehicles, portable electronics, starters and grid energy storage. The batteries enable increased range, longer lifetime, reduced cost, improved environmental friendliness and scalability to any production volume. The company is also developing a high power and low-cost battery capable of fully recharging in 5 minutes. BroadBit Batteries’ CEO expresses gratitude towards BASF, the competition organisers, the jury and the other startup competitors who gave them tough competition. They believe everyone has a role to play in making the world a better place.

The Swedish food-tech startup Innoscentia is pleased to have been chosen as one of the top 5 in the BASF Innovation Hub Nordics competition and was excited to present their solution that uses chemistry and microbiology to create a more sustainable future. The company is looking forward to exploring future possibilities with the BASF team. Innoscentia, founded in 2015, aims to reduce food waste by disrupting how the shelf life of food is measured. They have developed low-cost Dynamic Shelf Life Labels equipped with gas sensors that react to spoilage bacteria in degrading food products. They are finalising their first-generation labels for fresh meat applications and plan to launch in 2022 and are looking to expand their team to meet upcoming challenges.

What we’re reading

• US renewables industry joins Big Oil to fight delays to project permits (Financial Times)
• Floating wind power gains traction but can it set sail? (Reuters)
• Poland stops renewable electricity to the grid (Swedish, OMNI)

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