Nordic Green News - 6 August, 2020

Biofuels face uncertain future in Sweden

Dagens Industri writes that getting a sufficient supply of biofuels in Sweden is not guaranteed. In addition, the paper says that biofuels could be more than 6kr/litre more expensive (a 45% increase) if the EU refuses to grant Sweden an exemption to its waiver on taxes for HVO100 (a diesel) and E85 (bioethanol). Swedish motorists have benefited from this waiver for several years, meaning that Sweden has one of the highest penetrations of biofuels blended into petrol and diesel. However, it has still not been confirmed if the waiver will be extended beyond December 31.

 

In Sweden, HVO dominates among biofuels, and Swedish consumption of HVO accounts for 60% of European HVO use. The largest manufacturer in the world of HVO is Finnish Neste, with the majority of Sweden’s use imported from Finland, or from Neste’s plant in Rotterdam. 

 

Although the energy and carbon taxes in question would go directly to the Swedish treasury, the EU is involved as such a tax benefit is officially state aid, under the EU rules. The threat of an impending price shock worries many Swedish companies that have invested heavily in HVO100. "It is always troublesome that you do not know the conditions, that the game plan can be changed completely," said the CEO of one transporter. And according to Maria Nilsson Öhman, Head of Sustainability at DHL Sweden, the effect of such arbitrary rule changes can be significant. DHLs operations in Sweden had made excellent progress, more than halving its carbon footprint between 2014-2016. However, in the last 4 years, sustainability has lost momentum. According to Ms Nilsson Öhman, DHLs goal is to halve its CO2 emissions per tonne-kilometer by 2025, and to reduce this to 70% below by 2030. DHL uses a wide range of both renewable fuels and vehicles for these fuels, but electricity accounts for a very small share in DHL's fuel mix. This is because electricity is used in small distribution vehicles that do not produce very many tonne-kilometers. DHL regrets that the production of bio-DME has been discontinued, as this was an excellent technical solution. Although DHL sees ethanol and biogas as interesting solutions, “there is still a risk that ethanol and biogas end up in the same valley of death as bio-DME. If the infrastructure does not exist, we will not buy vehicles, then there will be no demand for fuel and the fuel will die out.”

 

Separately, the oil company, OKQ8 has decided to increase the availability of HVO100 to motorists, by increasing its delivery points from 108 to 130  of its service stations, in collaboration with Neste.

 

IKEA introduces a plant ball for meat lovers

IKEA says in a press release that it is recreating the iconic IKEA meatball in a plant substitute that has a climate footprint of only 4% of the original. The substitute, which uses ingredients like pea protein, oats, apples and potatoes, does not compromise on taste or texture. 

 

Finnish experts part of team looking for green uses for enzymes

Experts from Finland, Austria and Norway are to develop innovative and sustainable enzyme-based solutions for refining wood to high-performance materials. The work will be carried out by scientists from VTT Research Centre of Finland, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Austria and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences as part of European ForestValue, an initiative supporting the forest sector’s transition towards a knowledge-intensive, productive, resource-efficient and resilient sector.

 

Business Finland looks to France to sell energy solutions

In 2019, Business Finland reopened offices in Paris. This summer's municipal elections showed a historic green wave: of the big cities, for example, Lyon, Bordeaux and Strasbourg got a green city government, while Anne Hidalgo , who was re-elected mayor of Paris emphasizes green values ​​and responsibility. Amongst the opportunities for Finnish companies includes energy sector's solutions, smart grids as well as the battery and electric car industry.

 

Vattenfall building its first hybrid power park in the Netherlands

Vattenfall is building a hybrid power park - Haringvliet Zuid - which will be an efficient combination of wind turbines, solar panels and batteries. In a press release, Vattenfall says that wind and sun are a very good combination when it comes to electricity production. Wind power provides the most energy during the dark winter months when solar power does not provide much, and solar power's best time is summer when wind power is less productive. The battery system helps maintain the balance in the system by regulating the frequency and storing excess electricity. The project, which is the first of its kind for Vattenfall, focuses on maximizing the use of renewable energy, reducing costs and affecting the environment as little as possible.

 

Equinor stands out from peers for its green commitment

Norway’s state oil company Equinor stands out as the only oil major committing a majority of its future greenfield capital investment to renewable projects, argues Rystad Energy in a report published in June. “Recent suggestions of ‘resilient green strategies’ or ‘business as usual’ simply do not carry much weight, with the exception of Equinor. NOTE Since the Rystad report, BP has provided further details about its green plans.

 

Norwegian companies collect record amounts from the European Innovation Council

Seven Norwegian companies will collect more than NOK 500 million from the EU's EIC Accelerator. Alginor, Evoy, Innomar, N2 Applied, ONiO, Otechos and Wavefoil were amongst only 64 companies offered funding in this round. Only France had more success. Details of Norway’s winning sustainable entries are provided in the press release from Innovation Norway. 

 

Sweden becomes second largest net power exporter for the first time

Sweden overtook Germany to become the second biggest net exporter of power in Europe in the first half of 2020 – the first time this has happened, according to energy data analyst EnAppSys. Ranked by the amount of electricity imports and exports in Europe during the first six months of this year, Sweden’s total net exports amounted to 14.3 TWh with most of the power flowing to Finland (9 TWh) and Lithuania (2.6 TWh). France was the leading export (32TWh), Germany was third ranked and Norway the fourth.

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