Nordic Green News - 1 July, 2020

Equinor is developing a world-leading clean hydrogen plant in the UK

Equinor announced that it is developing one of the world’s – first large-scale facilities to produce hydrogen from natural gas in combination with CCS. The project, called Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend), is intended to be the beginning of a decarbonised industrial cluster in the Humber region, the UK’s largest by emissions. The project will be located at Saltend Chemicals Park near the city of Hull and its initial phase comprises a 600 megawatt auto thermal reformer (ATR) with carbon capture, the largest plant of its kind in the world, to convert natural gas to hydrogen. It will enable industrial customers in the Park to switch over to hydrogen and the power plant in the Park to move to a 30% hydrogen with natural gas blend. As a result, emissions from Saltend Chemicals Park will reduced by nearly 900,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year.

 

Norway considers $2.6 billion green bet

In October, Norway’s lawmakers will decide whether to back a 25 billion kroner ($2.6 billion) project that would drastically cut emissions from a cement factory and a waste-to-energy power plant. The plan involves capturing emissions from those two locations, loading the carbon dioxide on to a ship, transporting the compressed gas a few hundred miles to the country’s west coast, then burying it under the seabed. The government is to bear 80% of the cost. The rest will come from oil companies Equinor ASA, Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, According to Prime Minister Erna Solberg, “For Norway, CCS has never been considered as something socio-economically profitable, the question is: Does this provide the learning effect needed to give CCS the chance to be developed in the future, and will the fact that we develop this create the basis for other business activities?”

 

Sweden’s base industries alarmed by energy policies

Following last week’s reports that Sweden’s southern region was suffering from high prices and a lack of availability of power, a group of Sweden’s base Industries penned a debate article for Dagens Industri, Sweden’s leading business daily. Decrying the lack of care put into Sweden’s nuclear plant closures, the forest, chemistry, mines and steel industry (SKGS) point out that wind is a highly variable resource, and when it is not available, their factories risk immediate closure unless emergency measures are taken. With one of the two Ringhals reactors already decommissioned, and the other taken out of service next year, they feel their industries are greatly exposed. The SKGS Group therefore considers it important to accelerate expansion of the backbone electricity network and to protect all stable electricity generation sources - hydropower, cogeneration and nuclear power - to ensure voltage stability and power requirements. Responsible politicians have to show the ability to act now!

 

Saab successor Nevs, announces new autonomous mobility system

The era of the single-person car is over, according to Nevs. A decade ago the classic Swedish car firm, Saab, died with the financial crisis. Nevs arose as a phoenix from those ashes, acquiring the assets from Saab’s bankruptcy estate. Having analysed the demand by city residents to drive their own car instead of using public transport, even if it means sitting in traffic jams every day, they heard a clear reason - they wanted to be relaxed and not be disturbed. From the analysis Nevs designed Sango, a vehicle has six removable seats in three rows. For passengers who want to be at peace, the space can be converted using screen walls, limiting the vehicle to four passengers.

 

The next step for Nevs was to design a vehicle in such a way that it not only enables shared vehicles, but also shared travel, where those co-using the vehicle still get a feeling of being at peace. The new Pons vehicle can be integrated with any self-driving software. Nevs has now announced that 10 such vehicles will be used as taxis in Stockholm. Sango has a lidar system (laser-based radar) with five sensors: one on the roof and two on each side. On the sides are also five cameras with a 360-degree angle, complemented by three in the front. The software comes from AutoX, a company formed in Silicon Valley, California, but with close ties with Chinese Saic Motor. The vehicle is electrically powered and has a range of over 200km. The battery charging time is two hours and 45 minutes from 30 to 80%.

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