When Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen hosted an offshore wind summit in Esbjerg in May, the Danish Government agreed with Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium to increase installed offshore wind power capacity tenfold to at least 150 GW by 2050. On 30 August, the Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen will host an international summit on offshore wind power which will be held in Bornholm with the participation of Germany, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the European Commission. The focus will be on energy security in light of the war in Ukraine and the climate crisis, according to Climate, Energy and Supply Minister Dan Jørgensen, who observed that the Baltic Sea has untapped potential for renewable energy. "It's about accelerating cooperation with the countries that border the Baltic Sea from the EU. It is a purpose that is inherently good, because it is always good to collaborate on energy.’
Two Swedish companies, Polestar and Candela, have ventured into an agreement whereby electric car manufacturer Polestar will supply batteries and charging systems for Candela's highly efficient flying boats. The deal allows Candela to take advantage of state-of-the-art automotive battery technology and expand production of its best-selling electric boats. The deal is designed to overcome two major obstacles to electrified boating. The first obstacle is the high energy consumption of conventional motorboat hulls, which has so far led to poor performance of electric boats. This obstacle has been cleared by Candela's hydrofoil technology, which can reduce the energy use of motorboats by up to 80%. The second obstacle is the prohibitive cost of marine batteries for electric boats. To date, electric boat manufacturers have typically relied on smaller suppliers of boutique marine battery packs. The scarcity of these packs and the high unit costs are two factors that prevent parity with ICE boats for electric boats. The battery supply agreement is just the beginning of a wider anticipated partnership between Polestar and Candela, and both companies are committed to exploring further opportunities for future collaboration.
Vantaa Energi, one of Finland's largest urban energy companies, has awarded a consortium consisting of AFRY and YIT to develop the world's largest thermal store in Vantaa, Finland. The innovative thermal energy storage is an important milestone towards Vantaa's fossil-free energy production by 2026 and the energy company's goal of achieving CO2 neutrality by 2030. The development phase of the project begins in 2021. During this phase, the alliance parties work together to plan the project and its implementation to match Vanta Energi's objectives and to define its target costs and incentive schemes. At the end of the development phase, Vanta Energi will decide on the individual implementation of the investment and the transition to the project implementation phase.
During the implementation phase, the alliance will build a seasonal thermal energy storage facility of approximately one million cubic metres to store renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and waste heat during the summer months. The energy will be stored during periods of low heat demand and the stored heat will be used during the winter period when heat demand is high. Renewable energy from sources such as solar, wind and waste heat is stored in seasonal heat storage in water at a temperature of 140-150 °C. With a seasonal storage capacity of 90 GWh, this could meet the annual heating needs of a medium-sized Finnish city. The seasonal heat storage is the most important part of the "Fossil Free 2026" project, where Vantaa Energi aims to completely phase out fossil fuels by 2026.
Everfuel will build a PtX plant and hydrogen hub in Holstebro together with a number of partners to provide green hydrogen for a more sustainable industrial and transport sector and contribute to the next step in the green energy transition in northwest Denmark. The project will consist of three phases, which will significantly contribute to reducing the city's CO2 emissions, as the new hub will work alongside many of the city's existing operations and activities. The first phase will be operational as early as 2023 and will serve as a test phase. During this phase, the selected partners will develop the possibility of using hydrogen in industrial gas burners, test the production of e-methane on a pilot scale at a local biogas plant and test hydrogen in natural gas pipelines. Land has been reserved for the second phase and construction is expected to start in 2025. This phase will see the construction of a 100MW electrolysis plant, a hydrogen terminal, a distribution centre and a hydrogen refuelling station for heavy transport and passenger vehicles. The green hydrogen generated in this phase must contribute to the phasing out of fossil fuels, as hydrogen can replace natural gas in selected industrial processes. The MEC (Maabjerg Energy Centre) owned by Vestforsyning and Struer Energi, plans to use the waste heat from the production facilities for district heating. Arla is involved in the project as a purchaser of green hydrogen and is investigating whether Holstebro's company should replace part of the natural gas in its processes with hydrogen, which would significantly reduce CO2 emissions in production.
Power company Lyse will invest up to NOK 5 billion to increase the capacity and production of the Røldal-Suldal hydroelectric power station. According to Lyse, it aims to apply for a licence in the first half of 2023 and the investment will be made over a period of 10 to 15 years. The company says this will almost double the capacity of the facility to 600 megawatts (MW) and could increase annual production by 0.2 terawatt hours (TWh) to 0.25 TWh. With the planned increase in consumption, Norway risk moving from a power surplus to a power shortage. Increasing the production of renewable energy is necessary to prevent this from happening and can also help to curb high prices in the future. The company therefore wants to contribute to Norway's electrification and green transition. At the same time, the tax move to a cash flow tax and high electricity prices mean that many power companies are now cleaning up old projects, which means that investing in hydropower becomes more attractive.
OKQ8, Skellefteå Kraft and Volvo Trucks Sweden have jointly applied for and received funding from the Energy Agency to establish one of Sweden's largest networks of public charging stations in 2023 to cope with heavy traffic and facilitate intra- and inter-regional mobility. The support includes a total of 26 locations spread between Volvo Trucks dealers and OKQ8's facilities, each with at least two charging points in Sollentuna, Jönköping and Umeå. The charging stations and associated charging services will be available for heavy-duty vehicles from all manufacturers and will also be open to passenger vehicles. The charging points are equipped with 2-4 charging points, each with a continuous power of 350 kW. The number of charging stations will be adapted to the locations and traffic volumes expected to require charging in the region over the next five years. The proposed network enables the transport of electricity between logistically important points in Sweden. The focus is on creating a network for the whole of Sweden where the distances between charging points are significantly shorter than the range of today's heavy-duty electric vehicles.
Svea Solar has built around 20 solar parks across Sweden. After a large investment round in the spring, Svea Solar developed, built and owned solar parks under its own auspices. The two solar parks in Nyköping and Sölvesborg have a total installed power of approximately 40 MW and generate around 40 GW hours of green solar electricity per year, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of around 8,000 households. The solar park in the city of Sölvesborg, which is expected to be operational by spring 2023, has been purchased by two energy-intensive companies, the sawmill group Vida and Parks & Resorts through Bixia AB, the country's leading amusement park. The second solar park being built in Nyköping is due to be completed in September and will be operational in spring 2023, with solar power for the park meaning that Gröna Lund, Kolmården and Skara Sommarland will be powered by solar energy in the summer.
The Port of Aarhus and NRGi have signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) which ensures the construction of a brand new energy plant that will be able to generate electricity to cover the port's entire expected energy consumption. The plant may be a solar, wind or hybrid plant. The new agreement is in line with NRGi's strategy to support and accelerate Denmark's green transition through strong partnerships. The PPA is valid from 2025 to 2034, thus securing the construction of the new energy plant, but the final location of the facility has not yet been determined.
Solar company Advanced Soltech has reported an increase in turnover and an increase in operating profit for 2Q22. Its turnover increased by 29.1% to SEK 46.2 million and total revenues amounted to SEK 58.6 million. Its EBITDA resulted in SEK 44 million and operating profit was SEK 28 million. Max Metelius, the company's Chief Executive Officer, said that the company had worked extensively during the spring and summer to establish a new financial structure that would create opportunities for Advanced Soltech to capitalise on the strong growth in the Chinese solar market, by obtaining significantly better terms when refinancing existing loans and adding new credits.
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.