Mundus Nordic Green News – 17 March, 2021

Equinor wins industry hattrick in England’s north

On 17 March 2021 the UK Government announced the funding awards under the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) to three project consortia in which Equinor is directly involved:

• Zero Carbon Humber (ZCH), a twelve-company partnership to turn the UK’s largest industrial cluster net zero through the step-wise deployment of low carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and negative emissions being delivered at sites across the Humber estuary. The first project is the Equinor-led H2H Saltend low carbon hydrogen facility and a hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline network across Humber industrial sites developed by National Grid Ventures.
• Net Zero Teesside (NZT), a five-company partnership to decarbonise the Teesside industrial cluster with carbon capture and build a new gas-fired power station with state-of-the art carbon capture technology.
• Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a six-company partnership (with ENI, National Grid, Shell, Total and operator bp) to develop offshore carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure in the UK North Sea that will serve both ZCH and NZT.

The three successful bids amount to GBP 229 million in private and public funding, with Equinor and its partners contributing more than two-thirds of the total. (press release)

Swedish Energy Agency launches Bio+

The Swedish Energy Agency (Energimyndigheten) has launched Bio+, a new research and innovation program focusing on the contribution of bioenergy, biomass and the bioeconomy to the energy and climate policy goals. The goal is for forests, soil and the sea to contribute with sustainable bio-raw materials that are transformed into innovative products through energy-efficient processes. Processes that can utilize and refine residual and side streams from all stages of production are sought. The Agency has allocated SEK 320 million over four years in investment.

Green shares fall sharply

Vestas shares fell by almost 6% today, as markets continued to adjust for possible higher interest rates. According to Bloomberg, Orsted, Siemens Gamesa, Scatec Solar and NEL were also among the worst performing stocks in the European Stoxx 600 Energy stock index.

Sweden fails to reach forest goals: “we have been enormously ambitious”

Despite the fact that Sweden has not yet achieved its environmental goal of securing “living forests,” the Minister for Rural Affairs, Jennie Nilsson (S), is still of the opinion that Swedish forestry is sustainable. “The reason we do not reach the goals is that we have been enormously ambitious,” Nilsson said. With regards to biodiversity, which is part of the living forest goal, Nilsson pointed to the fact that Sweden only has 4,700 endangered species at present, which compared to other countries is a relatively low number. (Dagens Nyheter, Europe Forest Institute)

What we’re reading

• VW aims to sell 1m electric or hybrid cars this year (FT paywall)