Nordic Green News - 7 July, 2020

Sweden calls for green industrial shift as part of corona-recovery

Sweden and 7 other countries are launching a call for the need for industrial change and green recovery after the corona crisis. A letter was signed by Environment and Climate Minister Isabella Lövin and her peers from Finland, India, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK - all members of LeadIT, the industrial transition leadership group, established by Stefan Löfven and India’s Narendra Modi at the 2019 Climate Summit.

 

Hydrogen firms its role as part of Sweden’s industrial development

EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson and Climate Change's first Vice-President Frans Timmermans present two new EU strategies – one for better integrated energy systems and the second, the use of green hydrogen. The Commission wants to support the production of up to one million tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2024, expanding this tenfold by 2030, after which the technology will have "matured" enough for a large-scale expansion by 2050. Among other things, this will be done through the creation of a European "hydrogen alliance" where companies, states and organizations collaborate. The initiative hopes to make the EU a world leader in the field, employing a million people.

 

Germany’s Ambassador to Sweden, Anna Prinz, was interviewed about the priorities for Germany during its Presidency of the EU. She underlined that in addition to getting a recovery fund agreed, Germany wanted to progress digital/5G, e-health and the EU Green Deal. This meant that for her in Sweden, the focus will be for German and Swedish companies to work together on batteries and hydrogen. In September, the embassy will present the recently adopted German hydrogen strategy, gathering important German and Swedish players in business and research to explore opportunities for collaboration.

 

Andreas Kuhlmann, CEO of Deutsche Energie-Agentur (Dena), who was also interviewed, said that at the moment, everyone is talking about hydrogen. “Green hydrogen”, produced with electricity from renewable energy sources, will become a cornerstone of  Germany’s Energiewende , reducing CO2 emissions from transport and energy-intensive industries. He noted Sweden’s "green steel" project in Luleå.

 

Hydrogen train feasibility study commenced

Sweden’s northern Inland Railway, also announced that it was working with Norway’s Statkraft on a feasibility study to investigate infrastructure and logistics for hydrogen production to enable carbon-free transport of heavy goods. The main objective of the feasibility study is to investigate the infrastructure and logistics for hydrogen production, establishing the options for green hydrogen production facilities along the Inland Railway, and to establish a cost-competitive logistics solution for hydrogen. The secondary objective is to investigate hydrogen operation for existing diesel-powered railway vehicles. 

 

Smart loops enable recycling of small volumes of plastic and textiles

In Sweden, only eight percent of all plastic waste is recycled, the rest goes to incineration. Small volumes of plastic are often challenging to recycle efficiently, meaning that they are mixed with other wastes of unknown quality. A new project run by IVL, the Swedish Environmental Research Institute, is investigating whether it can be profitable to recycle smaller volumes of higher-value plastic and textiles, through so-called smart loops. The focus of the project is to identify barriers to profitability and see what measures and solutions are required from a behavioral and policy perspective.

 

OK/Q8 to become climate neutral by 2025

Fuel company OKQ8 has set a new target to be climate neutral throughout the value chain by 2045. CO2 emissions from all of the company's activities and products, including the fuels, will be zero. According to OK/Q8, there is development in liquid fuels - one example being the biodiesel HVO100, which is largely produced from residues from offal.  HVO100 is a fossil-free fuel that most diesel cars can run on, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional diesel. OKQ8 has recently entered into a partnership with Finland’s Neste, the world's largest manufacturer of renewable diesel. Through the partnership, OKQ8 will be able to offer Neste MY Renewable Diesel (HVO100) at 130 stations this summer and expects to increase the number of stations further during the year. OKQ8 is also investing heavily in the electricity market. In addition to charging stations and infrastructure at the company's own stations, OKQ8, it owns a subsidiary Kraftpojkarna, Sweden's largest distributor of solar energy hardware.

 

Hitachi completes acquisition of ABB’s Power Grids business

ABB Power Grids is now owned by Japan’s Hitachi. The deal worth approximately SEK 70 billion has been completed and 80.1% of the power division's holding has been transferred to Hitachi. During a three-year transition period, Power Grids will operate through a joint venture before fully integrating the business into the Japanese industrial conglomerate. The Japanese group intends to step up its power grid business where the transition to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power is expected to generate strong market growth. Power Grids accounted for about half of ABB's Swedish operations with more than 4,000 employees at production facilities in, among others, Ludvika and Västerås. ABB is a Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

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