At the request of the USA, Sweden has now joined the First Movers Coalition (FMC), and will also sit on its board. FMC brings together companies and countries that are leading the way in climate change by driving the development of climate-smart products. Four large Swedish companies are already part of the coalition. The FMC covers seven sectors that account for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions: aluminium, aviation, chemicals, concrete, shipping, steel and heavy transport. In addition to the United States and Sweden, the Board also includes India and Japan. Italy, Norway and the UK are also partner countries in FMC.
The Government recommends that three Swedish infrastructure projects may apply for funding from the EU Fund for a Connected Europe (CEF). CEF projects contribute to the development of alternative fuel infrastructure and to the phasing out of fossil fuels in the transport sector. Two of the Swedish projects concern hydrogen refuelling for heavy vehicles and the other project aims to install 1,046 charging points for light and heavy electric vehicles at 188 separate locations.
Last week, Statkraft opened its first large-scale solar power plant in India, marking a milestone in the company’s ambition to ramp up as a solar and wind power developer in the country. The Nellai solar power plant is in the southern state of Tamil Nadu and will generate renewable energy equal to the annual power consumption of more than 500,000 Indian homes. Statkraft has an ambition of ramping up as a solar and wind power developer in India and is currently focusing on the development of greenfield solar projects at utility scale.
Teco 2030 is working on developing a fuel cell for hydrogen and is scheduled to establish a factory in Narvik. The company now announces that it has secured a convertible loan of NOK 70.6 million from existing investors, including the Saudi partner Al Misehal Group, at an annual interest rate of 8% (convertible into shares). The money will be used for the development of our fuel cells and other general corporate purposes, said CEO Tore Enger. Teco 2030 has previously received NOK 50 million from Innovation Norway to develop its fuel cell.
The Danish cable and fibre manufacturer, NKT has received an order to expand SuedOstLink, which is one of the German high-voltage high-voltage corridor projects. The order is an extension of the SuedOstLink project, which adds an additional, parallel high-voltage connection from the northern part of Germany to the southern part and includes the delivery and installation of a 525 kV XLPE DC-high-voltage cable solution. NKT states that the extra SuedOstLink high-voltage line will have a route length of approx. 550 km, of which NKT will supply about half of it.
Eolus Vind and Hydro Rein are currently establishing the Stor-Skälsjön wind farm, which is located just outside Slättmon. Svevia has been commissioned to carry out the work with felling and construction of roads, crane sites, foundations and an internal electricity network. The project will start during 2Q22 and will be completed in 4Q23.
Smoltek Nanotech announced that Smoltek Innovation has signed a cooperation agreement with a large international manufacturer of input materials for electrolysers. The collaboration agreement includes the development of demonstrators for Smoltek's highly efficient nanofiber-based cell materials for PEM electrolysers. The project is done to verify the potential of Smoltek's nanofiber-based cell materials and its ability to reduce the amount of extremely expensive catalyst particles in PEM electrolysers. Through Smoltek's carbon nanofiber technology, the active surface that is in contact with the membrane in the electrolyser cell increases, reducing the total size of the electrolyser, while maintaining production capacity.
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.