Mundus Nordic Green News – 18 November, 2020

Work begins on a Swedish electrification strategy

The Swedish government issued a press release on Tuesday acknowledging that work had begun on a national electrification strategy. According to the press release, the kick-off event was a digital start-up meeting where about 150 representatives of the business community, authorities and environmental organizations and others gathered. Truls Borgström, from the Ministry of Infrastructure will lead the development of the strategy. He has been given a deadline of October 2021 to complete his work.

 

The Minister of Energy Anders Ygeman began by drawing historical parallels to the electrification of Sweden 150 years ago. In Nordic Green’s opinion, this analogy is fair, given the number of problems already evident in Sweden’s grid, and the huge hopes for it in the future. The press release presents a long list of the technical, commercial and political pressures in play. The scale of the challenge has been underlined by obvious tensions within the Swedish energy industry for months. Recently, several of the country's largest electricity producers, including Vattenfall, warned that there was a risk of new electricity crises. To avoid this summer's problems with extreme price area differences and threats to the electricity supply, both the government and Svenska Kraftnät must act quickly, 

 

One immediate initiative from Minister Ygeman was his announcement that the government wants to introduce new support services that can give nuclear power companies and other electricity producers extra financial compensation in addition to the revenue generated from the sale of the energy, in order to secure the stability and capacity of the electrical network. "Svenska Kraftnät, which is responsible for the Swedish electricity system, is now tasked with both reporting on its work with support services and proposing new remuneration models to players and necessary rule changes."

 

Increased wind developments causing political strain in Norway

Across the border, the Norwegian government is also facing challenges with developing wind power, and last week gave local councils the power to veto developments. This was highlighted, by a rebuttal article penned by Tina Bru, Minister of Petroleum and Energy, in response to claims that the government was promoting wind as part of a colossal reorganization of the energy network. Acknowledging that that wind power is becoming an important part of the Norwegian energy supply, Bru said that this policy started under the previous government. But she said that she wanted to “see less development of [onshore] wind power in the years ahead, not more.”

 

Norwegian Prime Minister holds hydrogen summit

Norway’s Prime Minister, Erna Solberg and the Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru held a digital summit on hydrogen with actors from the business community. See here for a recording of the meeting. 

 

Separately, Statkraft, gave its input to the commercial needs for a hydrogen strategy via a press release. Statkraft sees significant advantages for hydrogen development in Norway, but says that economies of scale are required, which need to be developed through financial instruments that stimulate the industry’s development.

 

Hydro and Equinor ally with Panasonic: Consider building battery factory in Norway

Panasonic, Equinor and Norsk Hydro say that they have signed a letter of intent to study the possibilities of establishing a European battery company with a factory in Norway. The three companies point out that they are at an early stage in the project. Therefore, they do not want to be specific about the type and size of the battery factory they envision. But they say that they want to have a partnership that goes beyond a single factory. “We have to reach the conclusion that this is very scalable. We’re not doing this to build a battery factory together and that’s the end of it,” Al Cook, Head of Global Strategy and Business Development at Equinor told the Financial Times. The FT notes that Panasonic is making a significant push into Europe as it tries to leverage its success supplying Tesla in the US to win more business from European carmakers. It also notes that Norway presents several advantages as the Scandinavian country produces nearly all its electricity from renewable hydroelectric power while its market for electric vehicles is the most developed in the world.

 

Scania to invest heavily in a battery factory in Södertälje

Truck manufacturer Scania is to invest more than SEK 1 billion to build a battery factory and a battery lab in Södertälje. The factory, which will be put into operation in 2023, will be located next to Scania’s chassis factory. "We want to have it here in Södertälje, close to our research and development facilities. When the volumes increase, we might start to manufacture at some of our other factories worldwide as well," said Henrik Henriksson, CEO of Scania. Green obligations, which are loans earmarked to reduce emissions, will partly fund the construction.

 

Although Scania will get the battery cells from Northvolt, the manufacturer wants to tailor the battery packs to optimize battery performance and perform life cycle analysis in anything from -40 to +70°C. This work will be done in the lab in Södertälje, which will open next Autumn.

 

Norway rated “no chance” of achieving the climate goals

DNV GL, a leading Norwegian business services company, says it has evaluated Norway's opportunities to achieve its climate goals. In a report just issued, it gives the country no chance with the pace that it has today. According to Research Leader, Sverre Alvik, findings show that Norway will most likely only achieve a 23% cut in climate emissions by 2030. This is in stark contrast to Norway's goal of cutting greenhouse gases by at least 50%.

 

Nordic TSO strategy work will focus on wind power and sector integration

Fingrid writes in a press release that the Nordic electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) have launched an update of their joint strategy. The aim of the strategy work is to bring it in line with the development of wind power and sector integration. The time span of the strategy covers the next 10 years, extending to 2030. Stakeholders are invited to webinars and consultations beginning in early spring 2021. The strategy will be finalized and published in spring 2022 

 

Swedish fossil fuel industry a winner from government rescue packages 

Two thirds of the investments in Swedish rescue packages during the corona pandemic have gone to the fossil fuel industry and one third to green investments, according to Gregor Vulturius, a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute. “Sweden is neither better nor worse than other countries. On the other hand, it is obviously surprising that a country like Sweden, which has very ambitious goals and strong goals, did not dare to go a little further, says Vulturius. The Stockholm Environment Institute has participated in the international project Energy Policy Tracker, which examines the rescue packages launched around the world due to the corona pandemic.

 

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