Mundus Nordic Green News – 22 September, 2020

Norwegian government commits to funding major CCS venture

In a classic mixing of metaphors, the Norwegian government has juxtaposed medieval history onto the iconic twentieth century moon landing. Yesterday, the government tabled a report to the parliament (Stortinget). The Norwegian state has said that it will finance two-thirds of a large-scale project to capture and store carbon dioxide. This will be the country’s second attempt to achieve such a commercial solution. Last time it did so, it optimistically equated the venture with a moon landing, but Statoil (now Equinor) dropped it as too expensive in 2013.

 

This time around, Prime Minister Erna Solberg has dubbed the project, Longship (Langskip), after the boats that the Vikings used on their raiding. Solberg told Reuters achieving the Paris climate targets would be more costly without CCS. “When we are now developing a storage facility ... it will be an important step because there will be a possibility for safe storage for a lot of other countries who would also like to capture their CO2.”

 

Norway says it will finance NOK 16.8 billion ($1.83 billion) of the estimated total cost of NOK 25.1 billion for a series of projects, including

1. A carbon capture project at a cement factory in southern Norway operated by Germany's Heidelberg Cement
2. A facility to capture emissions at a waste incineration plant in Oslo operated by Fortum
3. Northern Lights, a JV between Equinor, Shell and Total to transport and bury the captured emissions in a geological formation in the North Sea. Last year Equinor signed MoUs with seven companies, including Sweden's largest refiner Preem and the world's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal to store CO2 at Northern Lights.

 

Equinor signs global first for world’s largest turbines

Equinor writes in a press release that it has chosen the 13 MW Halidade-X turbine for its offshore wind farm, Dogger Bank, off Yorkshire. When developed it will be the world's largest offshore wind farm, and now it is using the world's largest wind turbines in what is the world's largest order for wind turbines.

 

The Haliade-X 13MW turbine is an improved version of the prototype of 12 MW, which has been producing power in Rotterdam since November 2019. The prototype set a world record in January 2020 by being the first wind turbine to produce 288 MWh in one day.

 

Research project aims to get home delivery electric from the start

E-commerce/home delivery for food has increased sharply in recent years, especially during Corona. To ensure that these systems receive a sustainable transport solution, a new project "E-commerce distribution of food in cities with electric vehicles" (E-DEL) will develop a solution for conversion to electric operation within e-commerce distribution. The project involves Chalmers Industriteknik, Gordon Delivery, E-Tron AB, Coop, Castellum and the City of Stockholm and is funded by Triple F (Fossil Free Freight transport in Sweden).

 

The project will focus on finding a solution that takes into account challenges and opportunities with the technology (primarily the vehicles' cooling devices and battery capacity), the infrastructure (in the form of transhipment and charging centres) and the logistics system (e.g. routes, number of stops, volumes, customer requirements) simultaneously. When the project is completed, the ambition is to have a ready-made solution that can be tested in real distribution systems.

 

MHI Vestas CEO to lead European wind organization

Philippe Kavafyan, CEO of MHI Vestas, has been elected President of WindEurope for the next 18 months. He takes over the position from Gunnar Groebler, the SVP of Wind at Vattenfall..  

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