Norway Has More Plans For The Energy Transition

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Norway has taken a leading role in at least two high-visibility elements of the energy transition, including its offshore wind industry as well as the rapid pace of EV sales in the country. However, wind turbines and electric cars are just part of the picture. Activity is stirring in other areas as well.

Behind The Scenes At The Energy Transition

I’ll be connecting with some of those backstage innovators later this week on a trip to Norway, all but one of which have slipped under the CleanTechnica radar to date (please note, this trip was made possible by the media firm Arc Press).

The availability of EV charging is one of the critical systems that can impact a country’s EV sales profile. Norway apparently has plenty of charging stations to go around, but EV charging stakeholders are not leaving the future up to chance.

This week I’ll be meeting with representatives from the Norwegian startup Elywhere. They have developed a charger-plus-storage solution for locations where the grid is too weak to support fast charging stations. With an integrated battery, the charging station can recharge itself at its leisure, whenever the grid is up to snuff.

In addition to the charging concept itself, Elywhere is of interest in the broader context of the energy transition. They launched in March of 2021 and had their initial ES300/300 charging station on display at the Nordic EV Summit in November of 2022, a nifty demonstration of the depth and maturity of the charging station and energy storage supply chains. The display model was also a working product, installed at its permanent location soon after the summit ended.

Another energy transition firm on my list is the Norwegian battery innovator Morrow Batteries, which is focusing on lithium-iron-phosphate batteries for heavy-duty applications. The LFP supply chain is considered more eco-friendly than the familiar lithium-ion batteries and it is less expensive, providing the energy storage field with additional options.

Hold on to your hats. Morrow also runs an energy storage research center in Norway, where work is proceeding on a lithium-manganese-nickel-oxide (LMNO) cathode material with the aim of cutting cobalt out of battery supply chain. Morrow also anticipates that the R&D effort will reduce the amount of nickel and lithium needed.

Transmission Lines And The Energy Transition

Neither Morrow nor its LMNO EV battery research project have surfaced on the pages of CleanTechnica until this week. Another new face is the startup Heimdall Power. The company specializes in grid optimization, tweaking existing assets to improve reliability and add transmission capacity without adding the cost of new infrastructure.

CleanTechnica has spotted a couple of other firms deploying new sensing technologies and software to squeeze more capacity out of existing transmission lines without sacrificing reliability. Heimdall expects to gain an edge partly by deploying drones to install its sensors in hard-to-reach areas. The company also notes that its digital system helps smooth the way to add more renewable energy to grids.

 Finding The Right Application For Wave Energy

Wave energy is another significant piece of the energy transition puzzle that has long been buried under an avalanche of news about electric cars, vans, trucks, scooters, bikes, autocycles, trains, aircraft, and autonomous vehicles of all sorts. Nevertheless, all that electricity for all those EV batteries has to come from somewhere, and it could come from harvesting the infinite kinetic energy of wave motion. In the US, for example, waves could provide for about one-third of the nation’s electricity consumption (see lots more wave energy background here).

After years of R&D work to overcome some sticky technology obstacles, wave energy harvesting devices are beginning to edge into the market. CleanTechnica has been tracking the activity but we haven’t spotted the Norwegian wave energy startup Ocean Oasis yet, so I’m looking forward to the chance to catch up.

Ocean Oasis is among the wave energy stakeholders to spot a competitive opportunity among island communities and coastal areas where the cost of fossil energy is high but there is little available space for onshore wind turbines and solar panels.

The company also aims to bring about an energy transition twofer by providing island communities with a wave energy solution for their desalination systems.

Cleaning Up Shipping Emissions

The climate tech firm ClimatePoint is also on tap this week. It works with companies to reduce Scope 4 emissions, meaning emissions that rise from the use of a product or service by clients and customers. The company’s Green River Investment Management branch enables ClimatePoint to zero in on high-impact opportunities for venture capital in the Scope 4 area.

Another newcomer to CleanTechnica is Strawberry, the second-largest hotel chain in the region, covering Scandinavia, Finland, the Faroe Islands, and the Baltics. It currently has more than 240 hotels under its wing, which certainly complicates the sustainability picture. Nevertheless, Strawberry states that it is on a mission to “lead the way and show that impact on the climate can be reduced even within large hotel operations.”

Rounding out the week is the one familiar name on the list, the leading Norwegian technology group Wärtsilä. CleanTechnica keeps up with news from the firm on a regular basis, particularly regarding its energy storage business. The company’s Wärtsilä Marine branch also provides systems for electric ships, in addition to hybrids and other technologies.

In its latest news, the company has also been leveraging its experience in maritime exhaust scrubbing to develop a seagoing carbon capture system. Last week, the firm announced that its new “Wärtsilä Carbon capture solution” reduces CO2 emissions from ships by up to 70 percent.

While that falls short of a deep, long-term energy transition scenario, Wärtsilä points out that carbon capture can help shippers meet the International Maritime Organization’s 2050 reduction target.

In the meantime, Wärtsilä is also leveraging its market position to motivate its suppliers to reduce their carbon emissions. In February, the company reset its “Set for 30” decarbonization targets with a new focus on emissions from its Tier 1 direct suppliers, enabling the company to make headway on its Scope 3 emissions.

Image (cropped): There is more to the energy transition in Norway than wind turbines and electric vehicles, with startups and legacy firms alike pushing the decarbonization envelope (courtesy of Ocean Oasis).