31 October 2022

Icelandic Airlines seeks to become first flagship airline to achieve zero emissions on domestic routes

Iceland Air is seeking to become the first national airline to operate all of its domestic routes with zero-emission aircraft by the end of the century, said Bogi Nils Bogason, Chief Executive Officer of the airline. Iceland has ready access to carbon-free electricity thanks to the volcanically active country's abundant geothermal energy that generates it. The goal is to use the abundant cheap, carbon-free electricity in Iceland to generate hydrogen for fuel cells. The airline operates three domestic routes from its headquarters at Reykjavik Airport, just outside the center of the capital, to Egilstadil, Akureyri and Isafjordur. In September, it signed a letter of intent with Sweden's Heart Aerospace for the possible purchase of the manufacturer's 30-seat ES-30, a battery-powered, conventional-engine back-up. Also last July, it signed a similar letter with Universal Hydrogen of the USA who has committed to converting Iceland Air's existing 37-seat Dash-8 turboprop to hydrogen power.

FT

Grupo Fertiberia invests in green ammonia and artificial fertiliser plant in Sweden

Spanish company Grupo Fertiberia is now investing in the development of a large green ammonia and fertiliser plant in Norrbotten, Sweden. The green ammonia and fertiliser project in the Luleå-Boden area has over 600 MW of electrolytic cells, a 1,500 tonnes per day green ammonia plant and an annual production capacity of over 500,000 tonnes of low carbon fertilisers and industrial products. In addition, the new facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art processes that meet the highest environmental and safety standards. The project is an investment of more than EUR 1 billion and is expected to be operational in 2026. The plant will use only water and air as inputs and will provide renewable electricity, mainly from wind and hydroelectric power. The initiative is called "Green Wolverine" and is based on Grupo Fertiberia's efforts to reduce CO2 emissions in Spain and the special conditions in the province of Norrbotten, where 100% of electricity production already comes from renewable sources.

Vatgas

Alfa Laval to supply heat exchangers for the world's largest green hydrogen plant

Alfa Laval has signed an agreement to supply a compact heat exchanger for the world's largest green hydrogen production facility that is about to be built in the Middle East. The facility, powered by renewable energy, will be part of the city of Neom, which started from scratch in the northwestern desert and aims to establish a new model for a sustainable society. Neom's location and infrastructure will enable solar and wind energy to generate 4 GW of renewable energy, of which the green hydrogen plant will use approximately half. This will be the largest green hydrogen plant and the first gigawatt-scale installation, producing 650 tonnes of hydrogen per day. In turn, this will be used to produce 1.2 million tonnes of green ammonia per year.

Energinyheter

CheckWatt acquires SM Teknik 

Energy services company CheckWatt has acquired SM Teknik, which has been providing operational monitoring of wind power generation since 2005. This means that 662 wind turbines now have the opportunity to connect to CheckWatt's services for active control, which both supports the power system and improves plant profitability. CheckWatt provides operational optimisation and price control production services and offers wind power owners the opportunity to connect to virtual power plants. The virtual power plant connects wind, solar and batteries together and provides support services such as frequency regulation for the grid, thus providing more revenue for the plant owner. CheckWatt's monitoring and active control system now includes approximately 960 MW of wind, 160 MW of solar and 3 MW of batteries, with the latter category being added rapidly.

Press Release 

Record wind power expansion in Sweden - until 2025

Wind power is growing at an unprecedented rate. However, new statistics from Swedish Wind Energy show that no new wind turbines were ordered in the third quarter of 2022, despite the growing demand for electricity in Sweden. The challenge of a slow and inefficient generation permitting process remains, but if the new Government addresses the permitting issue, there is an opportunity to maintain the strong pace of expansion and good willingness to invest. New statistics and forecasts from Swedish Wind Energy on wind power expansion show two images. The good news is that wind power is expanding at an unprecedented rate through 2025. In the first half of the 2020s, the equivalent of four nuclear reactors of wind power was added. The concern is that after 2025, the rate of expansion looks set to decline significantly.

Press Release

Kazakhstan and the EU to establish a production and distribution centre for green hydrogen

The Head of Svevind Energy Group, Wolfgang Kropp, and the First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Roman Sklyar, signed an investment agreement for the construction of a green hydrogen production and distribution center in the Mangystau region on 27 October. Hyrasia One, a subsidiary of Svevind Energy Group, plans to produce 2 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year. The project involves the construction and operation of a desalination plant with a capacity of 255,000 m3 per day, a 40 GW renewable energy (wind and solar) station and a 20 GW water electrolysis plant, mainly for export or domestic consumption. The project will lead to cooperation between German and Kazakh universities to train personnel in the region. The investor also plans to build infrastructure and pay special attention to the socio-economic development of the region.
NTB

Eurowind Energy hires 12 new heads and opens new offices

The Danish wind and solar developer Eurowind Energy has hired 12 new staff for its offices in Portugal, Spain and Italy to cope with the daily activity. The 12 new employees come from a variety of backgrounds and include employees with experiences in business development, law, technology, project management and marketing. This means that the team in Porto, Portugal, has doubled. At the same time it has opened offices in Seville and Milan. In addition to the new offices, Eurowind Energy is looking for suitable land for its projects in all three countries.

In Portugal, Eurowind Energy will soon connect its first 22 MWp solar park in Alenquer to the grid. At the same time, the company will start building around 50 MWp of small solar PV plants. In addition, the company is developing a number of PtX projects as well as hybrid parks. In Spain, Eurowind Energy has a 5 MWp solar PV plant in Cordoba and is working on further solar, wind and PtX projects. In Italy, Eurowind Energy has just connected its first six wind turbines to the grid in Sicily and will soon start building another five in the same region. Here, too, solar, wind and PtX projects are underway.

Energy Supply

Barsebäck's owner Uniper want new reactor to be completed during 2030's

While both reactors at Barsebäck Nuclear Power Plant are currently being dismantled, the owners have presented a new vision, with the aim of a new plant to be completed during the 2030’s. “Today we do not have enough energy in Skåne and we want to contribute to the solution,” said Åsa Carlson, CEO of Barsebäck Kraft, a subsidiary of Uniper, which also owns the power plant. Although the company had thoughts of new construction for some time, it is only now that it sees an opportunity to make its vision a reality. “There are positive signals coming from the new government,” said Carlson, who said she could not comment on the size of the potential new site, or whether it would be a full scale plant or a so-called SMR - small modular reactor. A full-scale nuclear power plant is estimated to cost around SEK 50 billion, but cost calculations and schedules are most often exceeded - the recently inaugurated nuclear power plant Olkilouto in Finland cost almost four times more than the estimated SEK 33 billion and has taken more than ten years longer than expected to complete. Although the potential Barsebäck plant is not yet at a financing stage, the company has said it is positive to the fact that the new government wants to set aside SEK 400 billion in credit guarantees for the expansion of nuclear power.

“It is welcome that Barsebäck's owners want to see new nuclear power built at the plant,” said the new Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, Ebba Busch (KD), during Sveriges Television’s current affairs program "Agenda". Further, Busch said that the attitude of the Swedish government was to change laws to enable the owners’ ambitions, and that any Danish protests would unlikely prevent any obstacle to more nuclear power on the Swedish side of the strait. Busch also described nuclear power as crucial for the green transition, and said the current government welcomed nuclear power without excluding other types of energy as well. When asked why wind power had been given so little room in the Tidö Agreement, Busch said that wind power was still welcome in Sweden, as it had been previously.

However, her position on this must have changed, as last year she wrote on Facebook, "We Christian Democrats protect a supply-secure, emission-free and predictable electricity production that meets the climate challenge, that does not destroy our industry or household electricity prices. It can happen without the Green Party's endless steel forests of wind turbines."

Svenska Dagbladet, SVT, Hallandsposten, SVT Play

First phase of DKK 1 billion solar investment begins in Fyn

Danish solar company Nordic Solar will break ground on a new solar park in Højby on the island of Fyn in November 2022. The solar park in Højby is being built in cooperation with GreenGo Energy Group, which together with Nordic Solar aims to build a portfolio of more than 250 MW, equivalent to an investment of more than DKK 1 billion over the next 3-5 years. The establishment of the solar park is very much in line with the expansion of the green energy network, which is part of the Odense municipality's green transition strategy. In addition to Nordic Solar and GreenGo Energy, the partners include the consulting firm Mols Consulting, which is responsible for the solar park's biodiversity work.

Building Supply

Coal consumption in Finland increased by 8% between 1Q22-3Q22 

According to preliminary information from Statistics Finland, coal consumption from January to September 2022 increased by 8% year-on-year. A total of 1,277 million tonnes of coal was used as fuel for electricity and heat production and industry, equivalent to an energy content of 33 petajoules. Russia's attack on Ukraine has affected energy markets and led to higher energy prices while changes in the fuel and electricity market price ratios and changes in emissions rights prices also affect demand for coal. Part of the reason for the change in coal consumption is the natural variation in electricity and heat demand between summer and winter as energy consumption in Finland generally varies with the seasons. Between January and September this year, coal consumption was on average 55% lower than in the 2000s. Thus, coal consumption has, despite the 8% increase, been on a long-term downward trend, and the number of factories using coal is decreasing. 

Press Release 

Rasakankaa wind farm in Finland completed

Ilmattare’s new Rasakankaa wind farm in Finnish municipality Kurikka is being completed and will produce enough electricity to power around 10,000 electrically heated detached houses a year. The construction of the wind farm, which has taken over a year to build, was completed in March 2022, and the grid connection tests required for commissioning are currently being carried out in the park. Ilmatare is the first company in Finland to install a 6.0 MW turbine at a wind farm and the larger MW capacity will increase the efficiency of the entire park. 

Press Release 

What we're reading

• Gfanz drops its Race to Zero requirements (Financial Times)
• Centrica reopens UK’s biggest gas storage site (Financial Times)
• Joe Biden’s $369bn climate push ripples through developing countries (Financial Times)
• Global anger at Sunak’s Cop27 snub that raises fears over UK’s climate crisis stance (The Guardian)
• Trade rift between EU and US grows over green industry and jobs (Financial Times)
• Icelandair to become first flag carrier to fly domestic routes emissions free (Financial Times)
• Johnson Matthey chief says UK [and EU] has fallen behind in hydrogen power race [with the USA] (Financial Times)

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