Mundus Nordic Green News – 16 March, 2021

SaltX wins Helsinki Energy Challenge

Nasdaq First North-listed SaltX Technology AB has won the Helsinki Energy Challenge – a €1 million competition to create the future of urban heating, with as little biomass as possible. Carl-Johan Linér, CEO of SaltX Technology said, "This is an important milestone for SaltX. It confirms that our energy storage solution can play a central role in future fossil-free cities. In the work of finalizing the entry we have added even more competence to our team which we will use in our commercialization going forward.” (press release)

Bodecker Partners to assist Liquid Wind with electricity tender

Liquid Wind has announced that it is proceeding with its e-methanol project, FlagshipOne. The project now seeks to acquire long-term physical electricity supplies and associated renewable attributes to supply it within a Corporate PPA contract with the expected start from 2024-2025. Bodecker Partners will be providing Liquid Wind with expertise in power procurement.

Bodecker Partners is now looking for project developers, investors or asset owners with planned new production interested in taking part in this tendering process of 200 – 550 GWh/year. (press release)

Uncertainty prevents investment in Swedish biojet production

There are two high-level initiatives to make flying sustainable in Sweden. One is the industry’s own roadmap, produced in conjunction with Fossil-Free Sweden. The goal in it is that domestic flights will be fossil-free by 2030, and that all flights departing from Sweden in 2045 will be fossil-free. The second is a new law for aviation kerosene, which will come into effect this summer, and which requires that the climate impact from the fuel be reduced by 27% by 2030, by blending in sustainable material.

Despite this, so far no project has progressed past its feasibility stage. According to Gustav Melin, CEO of the biofuel industry's interest group Svebio, “Everyone is talking about a shortage of biofuels. But it's not. It's just a lack of production capacity, because no one has ordered any fuel. Otherwise you could have produced as much as you want.” The problem is compounded by Europe’s proposed new taxonomy regulations, which sees Swedish forestry, a logical source of raw material, as unsustainable. Therefore, a lot of biojet fuel will probably need to be imported in the short term.

The two most likely projects to go ahead are being developed by Sweden’s refiners, St1 and Preem. The most advanced is St1, which by 2022, hopes to produce approximately 250,000 m3 of sustainable fuels, of which 75,000–88,000 tonnes would be biojet. Preem also wants to expand production capacity. The company hopes to be able to refine 1 million cubic meters of renewable fuel per year in a new facility in Gothenburg by 2024. (MSN News)

What we’re reading

• Australian mega miner Fortescue goes green (BoilingCold)