Norway Has Extra Plans For The Power Transition

Join CleanTechnica’s Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott’s in-depth analyses and excessive stage summaries, join our each day publication, and/or observe us on Google Information!

Norway has taken a number one function in not less than two high-visibility parts of the vitality transition, together with its offshore wind business in addition to the fast tempo of EV gross sales within the nation. Nonetheless, wind generators and electrical vehicles are simply a part of the image. Exercise is stirring in different areas as nicely.

Behind The Scenes At The Power Transition

I’ll be connecting with a few of these backstage innovators later this week on a visit to Norway, all however one in all which have slipped below the CleanTechnica radar to this point (please word, this journey was made attainable by the media agency Arc Press).

The supply of EV charging is among the important methods that may impression a rustic’s EV gross sales profile. Norway apparently has loads of charging stations to go round, however EV charging stakeholders will not be leaving the long run as much as likelihood.

This week I’ll be assembly with representatives from the Norwegian startup Elywhere. They’ve developed a charger-plus-storage resolution for places the place the grid is just too weak to help quick charging stations. With an built-in battery, the charging station can recharge itself at its leisure, every time the grid is as much as snuff.

Along with the charging idea itself, Elywhere is of curiosity within the broader context of the vitality transition. They launched in March of 2021 and had their preliminary ES300/300 charging station on show on the Nordic EV Summit in November of 2022, a nifty demonstration of the depth and maturity of the charging station and vitality storage provide chains. The show mannequin was additionally a working product, put in at its everlasting location quickly after the summit ended.

One other vitality transition agency on my listing is the Norwegian battery innovator Morrow Batteries, which is specializing in lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for heavy-duty purposes. The LFP provide chain is taken into account extra eco-friendly than the acquainted lithium-ion batteries and it’s cheaper, offering the vitality storage subject with extra choices.

Maintain on to your hats. Morrow additionally runs an vitality storage analysis heart in Norway, the place work is continuing on a lithium-manganese-nickel-oxide (LMNO) cathode materials with the goal of chopping cobalt out of battery provide chain. Morrow additionally anticipates that the R&D effort will cut back the quantity of nickel and lithium wanted.

Transmission Traces And The Power Transition

Neither Morrow nor its LMNO EV battery analysis undertaking have surfaced on the pages of CleanTechnica till this week. One other new face is the startup Heimdall Energy. The corporate focuses on grid optimization, tweaking current belongings to enhance reliability and add transmission capability with out including the price of new infrastructure.

CleanTechnica has noticed a few different companies deploying new sensing applied sciences and software program to squeeze extra capability out of current transmission strains with out sacrificing reliability. Heimdall expects to realize an edge partly by deploying drones to put in its sensors in hard-to-reach areas. The corporate additionally notes that its digital system helps clean the best way so as to add extra renewable vitality to grids.

 Discovering The Proper Software For Wave Power

Wave vitality is one other important piece of the vitality transition puzzle that has lengthy been buried below an avalanche of reports about electrical vehicles, vans, vans, scooters, bikes, autocycles, trains, plane, and autonomous autos of all kinds. Nonetheless, all that electrical energy for all these EV batteries has to return from someplace, and it may come from harvesting the infinite kinetic vitality of wave movement. Within the US, for instance, waves may present for about one-third of the nation’s electrical energy consumption (see heaps extra wave vitality background right here).

After years of R&D work to beat some sticky expertise obstacles, wave vitality harvesting gadgets are starting to edge into the market. CleanTechnica has been monitoring the exercise however we haven’t noticed the Norwegian wave vitality startup Ocean Oasis but, so I’m wanting ahead to the possibility to catch up.

Ocean Oasis is among the many wave vitality stakeholders to identify a aggressive alternative amongst island communities and coastal areas the place the price of fossil vitality is excessive however there’s little obtainable area for onshore wind generators and photo voltaic panels.

The corporate additionally goals to result in an vitality transition twofer by offering island communities with a wave vitality resolution for his or her desalination methods.

Cleansing Up Delivery Emissions

The local weather tech agency ClimatePoint can be on faucet this week. It really works with corporations to scale back Scope 4 emissions, that means emissions that rise from using a services or products by shoppers and prospects. The corporate’s Inexperienced River Funding Administration department allows ClimatePoint to zero in on high-impact alternatives for enterprise capital within the Scope 4 space.

One other newcomer to CleanTechnica is Strawberry, the second-largest lodge chain within the area, overlaying Scandinavia, Finland, the Faroe Islands, and the Baltics. It at present has greater than 240 lodges below its wing, which definitely complicates the sustainability image. Nonetheless, Strawberry states that it’s on a mission to “prepared the ground and present that impression on the local weather might be diminished even inside massive lodge operations.”

Rounding out the week is the one acquainted identify on the listing, the main Norwegian expertise group Wärtsilä. CleanTechnica retains up with information from the agency regularly, notably concerning its vitality storage enterprise. The corporate’s Wärtsilä Marine department additionally offers methods for electrical ships, along with hybrids and different applied sciences.

In its newest information, the corporate has additionally been leveraging its expertise in maritime exhaust scrubbing to develop a seagoing carbon seize system. Final week, the agency introduced that its new “Wärtsilä Carbon seize resolution” reduces CO2 emissions from ships by as much as 70 %.

Whereas that falls in need of a deep, long-term vitality transition state of affairs, Wärtsilä factors out that carbon seize will help shippers meet the Worldwide Maritime Group’s 2050 discount goal.

Within the meantime, Wärtsilä can be leveraging its market place to inspire its suppliers to scale back their carbon emissions. In February, the corporate reset its “Set for 30” decarbonization targets with a brand new concentrate on emissions from its Tier 1 direct suppliers, enabling the corporate to make headway on its Scope 3 emissions.

Picture (cropped): There’s extra to the vitality transition in Norway than wind generators and electrical autos, with startups and legacy companies alike pushing the decarbonization envelope (courtesy of Ocean Oasis).