our research, competences and technologies on renewable energy in a national, European and global context
Senter For Fornybar Energ i
our research, competences and technologies on renewable energy in a national, European and global context
Senter For Fornybar Energ i recommendations 2014
Senter For Fornybar Energi
who are we:
Centre for Renewable Energy (SFFE) is an ‘umbrella organization’ created in 2004, with a common goal to create more added value for society by working together with a broas range of partners to increase the quality, efficiency and amount of education, research, development and innovation within renewable energy in Norway. SFFE is owned and financed by the partners
NTNU, UiO, SINTEF and IFE.
our activities include: influencing:
Our Centre engages itself and works actively towards central decision-makers, authorities, and industry to strengthen research, development and realization of renewable energy in Norway.
network building and coordination:
Our Centre contributes to improved cooperation and coordination between central research groups and research institutions in Norway and internationally.
communication and information:
Our Centre communicates information and contribute to increased knowledge and understanding about renewable energy in Norway.
recruitment:
Our Centre contributes to promote ‘renewable energy’ as an attractive career possibility for young people.
contributors:
Anita Fossdal
Anne Grete Hestnes
Annemie Wyckmans Ånund Killingtveit Are Lund
Arild Gustavsen
Arild Underdal
Arne Bredesen
Asgeir Tomasgaard Bernd Wittgens Erik Marstein
Espen Flage-Larsen
Gabriella Tranell Hege Brende John Olav Tande Magnus Thomassen
Martin Kirkengen
Michael Musculus
Odd Jarle Skjelhaugen
Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug Otto Paans
Paul Inge Dahl
Petter Nekså Petter Støa Rolf Golombek
Steffen Møller Holst
Terje Jacobsen
Turid Worren Renaas
Vebjørn Bakken
SINTEF NTNU NTNU NTNU SINTEF NTNU UiO NTNU NTNU SINTEF IFE UiO NTNU NINA/CEDREN SINTEF SINTEF IFE NTNU UMB NTNU TiC SINTEF SINTEF SINTEF Frischsenteret SINTEF SINTEF NTNU UiO
editing and concept:
Gabriella Tranell & Otto Paans
A successful transition to clean and eff cientenerrgy forall ill demand ne kno led r e, ne technolo rgy, ne solutions and ne innovations, hich must be implemented to meet this r lobal challen r e.
Energy is not just about money and economic growth. It is far more important than that. Energy is essential to the lives of the people on this planet. Because we need energy to secure essential human needs, such as food, clothing, house/shelter, transportation, health and recreation – in short all the things we need to live a good life on this planet.
By the end of this century, the countries of the world must collectively make substantial reductions in the emission of green-house gases and other strains on the environment and climate. During the same period several billon new world citizens will join around the ‘global dinner table’. So how to provide SUFFICIENT energy and CLEAN energy to ensure a peaceful and sustainable society in the future, where everybody may participate in the successful development, is one of the largest challenges facing the global society today.
A successful transition to clean and efficient energy for all will demand new knowledge, new technology, new solutions and new innovations, which must be implemented to meet this global challenge. The solutions implemented will reflect local resources and conditions.
The Norwegian partners in Centre for Renewable Energy - NTNU, SINTEF, IFE and UiO – have teamed up to play an active role in this process – by supplying the scientific and technological knowledge, innovations and people needed to bring forward new clean solutions based on renewable energy. The aim of this 2014 report is to share our views on approaches to sustainable energy development, important research topics and policy needs. our
common vision is: sufficient, clean and efficient energy for a sustainable and peaceful society
‘clean energy for all!’
To ards ne societal horizons 12
Sustainable energy systems 14
The green system 18 Wind power 20 Hydropower 24 Marine power 28 Solar electricity 32
Geothermal power 36
Pumped storage hydro 39 Bio-energy 42
Biorefinery 46 Heat pumps 49
Thermo-electricity 52
Battery technologies 54
Hydrogen applications 56 Energy efficiency in the industry 60
Transport 62 Building efficiency 67
Smart cities 69
74
Norway as a provider of flexibility 76
The political difficulty 78 Greening the economy 80
Credits
Norway as a country 84 Norway in Europe 86
Norway in the world 88
82 90 92
There are different possible pathways to a low carbon economy. Clearly, no single measure or technology will suffice, and the precise mix in each country will depend on the particular combination of political choices, market forces, resource availability and public acceptance.
- EU SET Plan, 2009
Renewable energy will in the near future become available for an increasing number of people. This positive development takes place in a competitive environment, so in order to maximize the benefit for all, careful planning is needed.
With the projected global population growth, the energy demand will increase to provide for essential human needs such as food, materials, heating, cooling and power to carry out mechanical work. Coupled to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) [1] and other organizations serious outlook for the global climate, it is apparent that large, fundamental changes have to take place in the energy system in the very near future to slow the rate of GHG emissions. The transition from a linear economy of waste to an energy efficient circular economy has to be made in the coming decades. As acknowledged by the International Energy Agency (IEA) [2], these changes cannot take place by the growth in single green technologies alone but rather through a holistic interplay between sustainable energy generation and storage technologies, a restructuring of economic systems and incentives – ‘greening the economy’ and by human behaviour in terms of energy use/savings.
Said in another way - at the same time as we implement new renewable energy sources, we must ensure that we do it in an efficient way, in a more energy efficient society. Recently conducted scenario studies of energy mixes for future electricity production to minimize global warming 2, 4 or 6 degrees respectively illustrate (next page) the need for a mix of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) - all in great global scale, with corresponding market opportunities for technology and knowledge industry.
Norwegian scientists and leaders in various areas of
renewable energy research and education have high ambitions for what they would like to achieve and contribute in Norway, in Europe and the World in the years to come towards these goals. Education and research in the energy area are closely connected to contemporary societal- and economic needs, as well as to industrial agendas. As renewable energy technology sees a hard global competition, national business interests direct us to focus science and technology development on areas where we are strong enough to compete internationally.
That being said, unexpected scientific discoveries or market developments may quickly turn the focus around, emphasizing that fundamental and ‘blue-sky’ research is a prerequisite for radical innovation and adaptation. The figure on the right page illustrates the value chain for competence development, innovation and value creation and the roles of different actors to achieve this value chain under the stimulation and constraints of societal needs and political measures. In Norway, the R&D institutions have access to a variety of instruments in partnership with commercial actors along the path from basic research towards commercialisation. The increase in national resource allocation through the FME centers has built a solid Norwegian R & D platform that has placed Norway on the international map and made us interesting as partners for project- and commercial development. The SFFE partners are active in the majority of FME centres as well as in a wide range of other important science and technology areas within energy generation, conversion, storage and use.
basic research
maintain and develop critical competences
stimulate towards active research
theses, theory and ideas
studies & reports laboratories & cases
demonstration commercialization
secure access to results and implementation
demonstration and test riggs/sites
secure realisation of solutions that meet the industry’s needs
validation, prototyping/pilot
researcher projects, postdoc, PhD, SFF exchange exchange exchange exchange
universities and university colleges
KPN, FME, SFI industry-PhD, tax-deductable research, FORNY tax-deductable research, SFI, IPN, contract research
universities, university colleges and research institutes
NCE, OFU/IFU, BIA, RCN, Innovation Norway
value chain of competence development innovation and value creation
Concept by Hege Brende, adapted by Otto Paans and Gabriella Tranell
research institutes, consultants suppliers
This report is structured along four main themes: production, conversion, storage/distribution and end use. Each of these four main themes will be dealt with in a number of chapters. This overall structure is connected in what we call ‘The green system’, a metromap-like structure that links these four themes together into a coherent structure.
• Wind Power: Expanding on existing expertise and market development. Supported by FME Centres NOWITECH and NORCOWE.
• Hydro Power: Careful exploitation of an abundant resource. Power production and energy storage. Supported by FME Centre CEDREN.
• Solar energy: Solar electricity – the fast mover. Supported by FME Centre Solar United.
• Bio mass: Production of chemicals, fuels, combined power-heating. Supported by FME CenBio.
• Geothermal power: Deep drilling technology (experience from offshore oil and gas).
• Heat pumps using new cooling media to utilize renewable ambient heat for heating purposes in houses and to make industrial processes more energy efficient.
• Biorefineries to produce fuels and chemicals.
• Thermoelectric elements to convert thermal gradients to electricity.
• Batteries to store energy on large and small scale for stationary and mobile uses.
• Hydropower system.
• Hydrogen as an CO2-free energy carrier.
• Smart electric energy transportation and distribution (Smart grids).
End use
• Energy efficient Buildings Integrating engineering, materials and building concepts. Supported by FME Centre Zero Emission Building (ZEB)
• Smart Cities – Interacting with the built environment Optimized energy efficiency and attractive outdoor spaces customized to local conditions. Systems for optimized management of energy demand, production and storage. Solutions for production of decentralized renewable energy in the urban infrastructure Solutions for increased energy efficiency through synergy with systems for water and waste management.
• Industrial Use – Efficient Utilisation of waste heat.
• Transportation based on electricity and sustainable chemicals/gases (Biofuels/Hydrogen)
• Political, Economic and Societal Energy Aspects are supported by FME´s CenSes, CREE and CiCep
The figure below visualises the main topics and subtopics of this report. In the figure on the following pages, an envisaged, interconnected green energy system based on these main topics and subtopics is illustrated. As with any modern ‘metro system’, it is possible to get from point A to B following several different paths – with a green result!
energy e ciency in industry wind power
heat pumps thermo-electricity bio-energy
battery technologies
SFFE report 1 2 3 4 5 hydrogen applications building e ciency smart cities
storage and distribution production methods conversion end use (pumped storage) hydropower solar electricity geothermal power biore nery
transport
sustainable energy systems
providing exibility
in uences political frameworks green economy
Resources, production methods, conversion, storage, distribution, end use and goals
reduced resource use reduced emissions energy e iciency
fresh water tidal waves sun geothermal heat biomass
electricity wind power
heat pumps (pumped storage) hydropower thermo electricity marine power
geothermal power bio-energy
production methods resources goals conversion heat solar electricity biore nery
energy e iciency in industry
transport
building e iciency smart cities
storage and distribution end use in uential factors hydrogen applications district heating pellets biofuel chemicals
providing exibility 19
sustainable energy systems political frameworks green economy
The utilization of wind power is rapidly growing on an international level. Increasing the investments, research opportunities and demonstration opportunities for wind power will greatly benefit the Norwegian position on a European and global level. Especially offshore wind farms present great potential. To succeed, Norway needs to set ambitious R&D targets to face the global competition.
Offshore wind energy represents a golden opportunity for Norwegian developers and suppliers in the international market. The market is large and growing with major developments in the North-Sea, mainly within UK and Germany waters, but also expanding outside Europe with especially China, Japan and USA having ambitious targets. Norway has a strong standing in this development building on expertise within the energy and petro-maritime industries and with the FMEs NOWITECH and NORCOWE as spearheads for research. Nevertheless, the international competition is strong with ambitious programmes for development. Thus, to progress as a competitive supplier and offshore wind farm developer in the international market, Norway must enhance research and industry incentives, including a strong programme for testing and qualification of new technology. Wind power on land is more mature in terms of market and technology, but still with potential for research, albeit less compared to offshore wind power. t
On- and offshore wind turbines are today very similar in design, basically all according to the classical horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) concept. Unit sizes are up to 7 MW with rotor diameters approaching 160 m, but also larger units are in development. Wind farms constitute a number of wind turbines grouped together, typically with some 5-10 rotor diameters between each turbine,
and connected to the transmission grid with a joint transformer station. Wind farms may range from a few tens of MW onshore to GW sizes offshore. The globally installed wind capacity was 282 GW by end of 2012, of which about 5 GW was offshore. The development is rapid, about 45 GW of new capacity was installed in 2012 [1], and predicted to continue: IEA [2] assumes in their scenario for limiting the global heating to 2 degrees Celsius that wind farms shall provide for about 15% of the global electricity generation by 2050, roughly corresponding to a total of 2000 GW of installed wind power. Large areas with good wind resources offshore, and increasing pressure on land space, indicates that a significant part of this will be offshore, possibly overtaking the land-based development. In Europe alone the goal is 150 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. [3] Statoil and Statkraft are active as developers in the UK offshore market with Sheringham Shoal (317 MW) in operation, Dudgeon (402 MW) in development and Doggerbank (9-13 GW) in planning.
The installed wind capacity in Norway is 704 MW (2013) giving an annual generation of about 1.5 TWh, all onshore except for the floating wind turbine HyWind (2.3 MW). The possibilities and interest for development of new wind farms are significant; alone on the west-coast of Mid-Norway building permits are granted for installation of 1.7 GW of wind farms. In total the expectations is 7-8 TWh of wind generation in Norway by 2020, all to be
realized as part of the joint Swedish-Norwegian green certificate market, ref. www.vindportalen.no. Likely these will all be onshore wind farms, though the offshore potential is huge. [4, 5, 6], but presently with significant higher cost of energy than land based wind farms. The costs of energy from offshore wind farms vary currently between NOK 90-120 cents/kWh, compared to NOK 5060 cents/kWh on land. [8] Significant cost reductions are however expected. The industry goal is 20-40% reduction by 2020 and 50% reduction in costs of energy from offshore wind farms by 2030. [7]
The industry for wind power on land is dominated by large wind turbine manufacturers such as GE (USA), Vestas (Denmark), Siemens (Denmark/Germany), Enercon (Germany), Suzlon/REpower (India), Gamesa (Spain) and Goldwind (China). Norway has one wind turbine supplier, Blaaster, currently testing their new direct drive 3 MW turbine at Valsneset test station for wind turbines. Other Norwegian companies are involved in planning and resource assessment, site preparations and installation, grid connection and operation and maintenance (O&M), though mainly for the Norwegian market only. For offshore, the wind turbine suppliers play a less dominant role as installation, substructures, grid connection and O&M constitute major parts typically handled by separate companies. In this market, Norwegian suppliers of goods and services have a strong international standing with companies like Fred Olsen, Aibel, Reinertsen, Owec Tower, Olav Olsen, Nexans, Fedem, Fugro OCEANOR, Kongsberg and DNV GL. HyWind, the world’s first floating turbine in full scale was developed by Statoil, and the research centres (FMEs) on offshore wind NOWITECH and NORCOWE deliver research of high international calibre. In total some 150 Norwegian companies are engaged in the offshore wind market. [8]
The main challenges can be summarized as to achieve cost reductions, better integration in power system and environment, and development of the supply industry. Development of larger and more robust turbines especially adapted to the offshore environment, new and better substructures and installation methods, more
efficient strategies and technologies for O&M and better solutions for grid connection and system integration are significant areas of research. There is also a need for increased knowledge about wind and wave conditions, and better models for wind farm design with reduced uncertainty and high yield.
A main challenge in developing larger turbines is that the tower top weight increases more or less with the cube of the rating, thus innovations are required for larger lightweight designs. Better models, use of new materials, improved blade designs and new generator concepts are key areas of R&D.
Grid connection and power system integration are challenging both on land and offshore. For on land wind farms, it is often so that good wind resources and available land are in proximity to relatively weak electric grids, hence limiting the exploitation of the wind resource. Large offshore wind farms far from shore requires connection by HVDC associated with significant costs and limited experience. On this, there is significant international interest in developing an offshore grid with transnational lines serving both power exchange and connecting offshore wind farms. R&D efforts are prone to provide for large cost savings and reduced risks in grid connection and power system integration.
Operation and maintenance are particularly challenging offshore. More resilient designs with less need for maintenance and repairs, systems for reducing need for access and vessels capable of accessing turbines in rough weather are key areas of R&D.
Development of wind turbine and wind farm control systems is considered a promising area of research. Wind turbine control systems may be developed for better mitigation of loads and reduction in unwanted swings, whereas wind farm control can be made more advanced for optimization of production taking into account wake propagation, loads and grid requirements.
Substructures for offshore wind turbines are available for both bottom-fixed and floating turbines, but only with very limited experience for water depths exceeding 50
meters. There is a need to develop substructures capable of carrying larger turbines, and systems that makes the installation process robust towards weather conditions. The latter may include development of new vessels able to operate in more harsh conditions or it may be new concepts that can be assembled on shore. Concepts that require a minimum of offshore installation works are prone to reduce risks and costs. Marine operations are considered a critical factor with significant potential for improvements through research and lab scale testing.
A major challenge for developing an offshore wind supply industry in Norway is the lack of a home market.
Offshore wind stands out to be a market in which Norwegian industry has the potential to develop large
supplies that over the next few decades can become comparable to the oil and gas supply industry. In Europe alone expected investments are in the order of NOK 1.000 billion for the construction of offshore wind farms over the next ten years. However, the international competition is strong, and the advantages we have from our petro-maritime experience have limited duration. We therefore need a shift of priorities in our efforts to establish an effective program for the development, testing and demonstration of offshore wind farm technology. This is needed for the development of technology and expertise that can reduce the cost of offshore wind energy and secure future Norwegian knowledge-based deliveries to the international market. There are also opportunities and research challenges related to land-based wind power that should be addressed, albeit the potential and effort proposed is less than for offshore.
R&D recommendations:
• Establish test and demonstration projects on offshore wind energy, both fixed and floating turbines, with a total size of 100 MW or more.
• Reinforce and continue the public support for the FMEs as spearheads for research on offshore wind in the international market.
• Increase public funding for basic research, PhD education, and development of high risk-high gain ideas.
policy recommendations:
• Establishment of test and demonstration projects on maritime wind energy, both for fixed and moving turbines, with a total size of 100 MW or more.
• Establish a regulatory framework that makes development of windfarms attractive.
Hydropower will play a pivotal role in Norway’s energy supply in the forseeable future. By many, it is regarded as a mature technology that is an accepted sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. However, technological, societal and environmental developments require new research trajectories focused on the construction and optimal operation of hydropower systems.
Norway has during more than 100 years gained considerable expertise in hydropower in all areas, such as hydrology, environmental impact, construction, and production as well as maintenance of mechanical and electrical components and ways of operating. These competences apply to both large and small hydropower plants. Especially, Norway has been a pioneer in the construction of underground hydroelectric plants. Approximately 60% percent of the energy consumed in Norway has been generated with hydropower. Although about 40% of the consumption is still generated by fossil fuels, the utilization of hydropower remains a significant part of the national energy market. By 2020, renewable energy share will increase to 67.5%, reducing fossil fuels share to 32.5%. It is assumed that Hydropower will constitute a large part of this increase, together with wind power.
The electricity power system in Norway in 2012 had a total capacity of 30.170 MW and an average annual generation of approximately 130 TWh, accounting for about 99 percent of total renewable electricity production. Since then, 600 MW (0.9 TWh) new capacity has been put in operation, and additional 750 MW (1.7 TWh) is under construction.
Seen from an international perspective, Norway is
a major hydropower producer, and occupies the sixth position in the world, behind China, Brazil, Canada, the USA and Russia. Developments in recent years have been mainly focused on small-scale hydropower plants in Norway (here defined as power plants below 10 MW). The development of more small hydropower plants is expected to continue towards 2020, as there are currently hundreds of applications processed by NVE. In addition to this expectation, there is a growing effort in upgrading and refurbishment of older power plants, a need that will increase sharply in the coming years, with a rapidly ageing fleet of power plants.
Of the 1393 hydropower plants in operation 1/1-2012 (30.008 MW), 540 plants have a capacity of less than 1 MW, 520 plants have a capacity that varies between 1 and 10 MW and 333 plants have a capacity that exceeds 10 MW. The total generation capacity for all 1060 plants below 10 MW is about 8 TWh/year, while the 333 power plants with a capacity above 10 MW possessed a generation capacity of 122 TWh/year. Including new generation capacity put into operation in 2012 and 2013, and projects under construction, the existing capacity increases to 31.500 MW and 132.6 TWh/year.
An important characteristic of the Norwegian hydropower system is its large storage capacity, approximately 84 TWh, equivalent to 65% of the annual production. This represents almost 50% of
Careful exploitation of an abundant resource
all electricity storage capacity in Europe, and offers great flexibility in production capacity. Regulated electricity production from hydropower is an ideal base to complement and balance the other unregulated renewable electricity generation technologies, such as solar and wind power. The flexibility in the regulation of hydropower can help to ensure quality delivery of such renewable energy sources and thus increase the overall production capacity and security of supply.
Although hydropower technology is a mature technology in many areas, there are still significant research challenges related to the long-term build-up and optimal operation of the current system. This applies not only to technological solutions, but also to environmental
impacts, social acceptance and the challenges in a changing climate. Internationally, there has been little focus on research in the hydropower sector, probably because this has been regarded as a mature technology, and because other renewable energy sources have been given higher priority. For Norway, where hydropower will account for the bulk of the energy supply in the foreseeable future, it therefore is a challenge to provide expertise to build, operate and develop the hydropower system under new conditions both with respect to climate, market, environmental and social acceptance. The Energi21 process identified a number of key research challenges for the hydropower sector, focusing on hydropower’s role in balancing power towards Europe. Challenges and research needs are also discussed in the “Energy report” (NOU 2012:9) and in NTVA’s Energy Strategy 2013-2017.
There remains at present an untapped hydropower potential of about 34 TWh/year in Norway, within a development cost of 3-5 U.S. $/kWh, in addition to the approximately 50 TWh/year in rivers permanently protected against hydropower development. The potential for small plants (below 10 MW) is approximately 25 TWh/year. Currently, the construction or development permission has been granted for plants realizing a production of 3.7 TWh, while applications for a further 7.4 TWh, are being processed. For larger plants (plus upgrading and expanding existing power plants) there is a potential in the order of 7 TWh. In addition, many of the existing power plants may be redesigned for higher
peaking capacity or equipped with reversible pump turbines utilizing existing upper and lower reservoirs. Here, the output potential is very large, exceeding a capacity 20.000 MW.
The hydropower sector (manufacturing) included 779 companies with 10.897 employees in 2010, with a total value of 32.1 billion. This value chain includes technology delivery, planning/engineering, development and production of power. In addition to value added in energy production, this also helps the supply industry, consultancy and R & D institutions to create value in the energy sector, which in hydropower amounts to 2.3 billion NOK in 2010. (NOU, 2012:9)
R&D recommendations:
• Mapping and improving the understanding of the environmental impacts of river systems by changing operating conditions
• Design and construction technology for waterways under changed operating conditions.
• R&D focused pumped storage hydropower.
policy recommendations:
• In order to prevent Water Resource Conflicts, relations with the EU Water Framework Directive and the Floods Directive need to be established and improved.
• Establish a new regulatory framework for the utilization of hydropower.
• Market design for hydropower use as balancing services.
• Efficient maintenance and refurbishing strategies for hydropower systems.
Tidal waves generate enormous amounts of power, but this potential is rarely harnessed. New research and technological innovations gives an optimistic outlook for this way of producing renewable energy. Although the absolute production capacity for Norway is limited, Norwegian offshore expertise can be utilized to play an important role in this emerging field
When the wind energy over the sea is transformed to wave energy, the energy density is increased. Just below the ocean’s water surface, the wave energy flow, in timeaverage, is typically five times denser than the wind energy flow 20m above the sea surface, and 10 to 30 times denser than the solar energy flow.
Various technologies are utilised to convert the waves’ potential energy or forward kinetic energy into electricity. Devices include attenuators, pitching devices, oscillating wave surge converters, overtopping devices, point absorbers, submerged pressure differential devices, and oscillating water columns (OWC). The most common technology used is the oscillating water column, in which the wave, while cresting and toughing in a fixed housing chamber, displaces air at a regular pace. This air flow is directed to a turbine to generate electricity, in a manner quite similar to how wind turbines extract energy. A number of OWC devices have been constructed in countries including China, India, Japan, Norway, and the UK.
Some commercial actors estimate that wave power could produce between 200 and 300 GW, using the most promising sites worldwide. If more areas were exploited, this estimated potential could be even higher. And since the waves producing the highest levels of energy are found close to densely populated regions, including Western Europe, Canada and the USA, wave energy could
be a key investigation area for development globally.
Along the Norwegian coast the level of wave energy transport is at 20-40 kW/m. The theoretical potential can be calculated to approximately 400 TWh/year. However, only a part of this potential energy will be feasible for harvesting and a realistic estimate is close to 8 TWh/ year.
The technology for wave power plants is still in early stages of development, and further research initiatives are necessary. Pioneer work was carried out in the 80s, especially in Japan, Great Britain, Sweden and Norway. An overview of the Norwegian work from this time can be found in White Paper nr. 65 (1981-82) from the Norwegian Storting, and in the review paper; ‘Wave energy utilization: A review of the technologies’ from 2010 written by António and Falcão. Many different concepts for wave energy harvesting have been suggested. Over the last fifteen years there has been more commercial focus, and some of the largest energy companies in Europe have invested in wave energy projects. Many countries offer stimulating economic conditions, and more test facilities for wave energy have been established, for example at the Orkneys, in Great Britain and in Portugal. Wave farms with a total installed capacity of 170MW are actively under development in Scottish waters.
The emerging potential of tidal wave energy
The British work has resulted in wave power technology like Pelamis which in 2004 was the world’s first prototype of commercial scale to generate electricity to a national grid from offshore waves. The Pelamis device, being developed in Edinburgh and tested off Orkney, is like a sea-snake, using hydraulics, a large scale device optimised for off-shore installation where there’s more turbulence than near-shore, and waves come from different directions. In 2009 the second-generation Pelamis machine, P2, was launched. The P2 design machine has been sold to utility customers E.ON and Scottish Power Renewables and are currently tested for a number of commercial scale projects.
Following model tests in 2010, AWS Ocean Energy is working towards a full-scale 2.5 MW prototype of its Wave Energy Converter named AWS III. The device is based on air-turbines using floating platforms that convert wave motion into pneumatic power. A full scale demonstrator is planned to be tested in 2014, with full commercialisation to follow.
Aquamarine Power’s Oyster (part of SSE Ventures) wave power technology captures energy in nearshore waves and converts it into clean sustainable electricity. Essentially Oyster is a wave-powered pump which pushes high pressure water to drive an onshore hydroelectric turbine.
In Norway the Storm Buoy from the company Ocean Energy is a concept that addresses the challenges of extreme stress caused by offshore conditions that the machinery must handle by automatic submersion of the buoy floating on the surface. With collaboration with Seabased AB in Sweden a full scale pilot is to be tested on the Centre for Ocean Energy at Runde in the in Norway. Further testing in Gran Canaria is planned in collaboration with the Spanish research institute Plocan.
Off the coast of Orkney the wave conditions can be extreme and the waves carry five times the energy density than wind. And add to this the corrosive salt water. It’s a stressful environment. Putting your wave
power device in harm’s way carries a reasonably high chance of having it torn apart by the very waves it’s trying to exploit. The necessary capital investments are huge and the time to get to a commercial product is often longer than anticipated. The technology development faces significant struggles to find financial and political support with patience and long-term perspectives to see wave power devices through to commercialisation.
Some estimate that only 155 TWh/year of tidal energy is extractable worldwide. Limiting factors include financial considerations, the infeasibility of power stations in certain areas, electricity transmission issues and efficiency concerns.
From 1973 Kjell Budal established a group for wave energy research in the Department of Physics at NTNU, and SINTEF also got involved. The wave laboratories of NTNU came to good use in the testing of various models. Among the models tested were the concept from Kværner Brug, installed in Øygarden in 1985. Another test plant was built in the same place, based on the tapered channel concept, developed in cooperation with at predecessor of SINTEF.After the oil crisis in the 1970s, the energy prices fell and the funding for wave energy research were reduced. The Norwegian development stalled, but some activity has now been reestablished. After 2003 we have wave energy research at the NTNU-connected institutions CeSOS as well as in various departments connected to construction, power engineering, energy engineering and industrial economy.
Renewables are expected to produce 30% of Europe’s electricity by 2020 according to EU targets. At the world’s scale, in 2050, 77% of the world’s energy supply could be covered by the renewable energies. In this context, the development of wave energy has a bright future. Over the last fifteen years there has been more commercial focus, and some of the largest energy companies in Europe have invested in wave energy projects. Many countries offer stimulating economic conditions, and more test facilities for wave energy have been established, for example at the Orkneys, in Great Britain and in Portugal.
Wave farms with a total installed capacity of 170MW are actively under development in Scottish waters.
The revolving of the earth, moon and sun creates tidal differences in the sea level. Tidal energy takes advantage of the energy that is created from the variation of the water level from ebb to flood, or from utilizing the fastflowing tidal streams that exist at some locations. The tidal barrages are dams that rely on the twice daily cycle of the tides. They impound water at high tide, and let the water ebb out through turbines at low tide. This type of ebb generation is generally reliable, but cannot occur continuously as power generation is limited for to less than 12 hours a day. In addition to harvesting energy from tidal barrages, we can also derive energy from tidal and marine currents. The tidal stream is driven by changes of the tides while the marine currents by the global oceanic circulation and seawater density variations. Current technologies to extract tidal stream power include horizontal and vertical axis turbines, venture devices, and oscillating hydrofoil devices.
Tidal power has an energy concentration of 500 to 1000 W/m2 on the Norwegian coast, and the Norwegian coastline has many narrow and deep fjords where the tidal streams are very strong and with higher energy density compared to i.e. wind streams. The technical viable energy potential for production of electricity from tidal streams in Norway is estimated to 2 TWh/ year, according to the Norwegian Directorate for Water and Energy. Thus, tidal power is not a substantial energy resource in Norway, but it can be viable in certain locations, generally in the northern parts of the country. However, the Norwegian competence in offshore installations is considered to be of great value in the development of new concepts for generation of energy from tidal currents.
Commercialization of technology for tidal energy is still quite new, and the use of tidal energy for electricity generation is still small in a global perspective. The tidal streams are, however, more reliable and predictable than
the wind, and the energy density is higher. The main technological challenges are connected to the harsh environment that sea water represents, e.g. installation of the turbines in tidal streams and fatigue load from waves .
Similar to the deployment of wave energy, tidal power projects are in need of large capital investments and renewable incentive mechanisms in order to be economically feasible. The technologies are immature and largely under development in relation to scale, LCOE, operation and lifetime.
A prototype of a tidal water turbine has been installed in Hammerfest in northern Norway by Hammerfest Strøm in 2003. This was the first tidal turbine utilizing the tidal current that connected to the electrical grid. The experience gained from this prototype lead to the the development of a new prototype which is 1 MW, This turbine has been tested in 2012 at the European marine energy center, EMEC located on the Orkney Islands.
NTNU and SINTEF were involved in the development of a tidal turbine in cooperation with Hammerfest Strøm from 1998 to 2008. The turbine blades was designed and model tests were carried out at NTNU in Trondheim. The prototype has been installed in Kvalsund outside Hammerfest, and has produced electricity since 2003.
Renewed interest in tidal energy is being driven by the global interest for renewable energy. Tidal energy is an especially attractive option given its predictability, and impoundments are proven technology. Whereas freestanding underwater turbines designed to capture tidal currents are still being tested at the megawatt scale.
Capturing tidal energy using impoundments is facing increased interest in later years. In 2011 South Korean officials turned on a 254-MW ‘barrage’ style plant akin to La Rance in France, surpassing it by 14 MW. Further tidal installations are in development in South Korea and elsewhere, including the United Kingdom and
China.In Norway the difference between ebb and flood is not so large, but instead there is potential to utilize the kinetic energy in some tidal currents. The energy in such currents can be extracted in floating or bottomfixed turbines, which have much in common with wind turbines.
Except for South Korea, no other government in the world is really pushing tidal energy which needs massive government support at this stage of development. Small scale pilot plants are being built here and there but they will take a lot of time to become commercial in scale. (The Massive Tidal Barrages being planned in Russia and Philippines will most probably never see the light of the day just like the Severn Tidal Barrage Project in England.)
Tidal wave energy is still a very nice technology with tidal barrages generating most of the electricity in a few power stations. Most of the tidal power plants using the modern tidal turbine technology are still in the pilot phase and generate relatively small amounts of energy. However, tidal power stations have the potential to generate large amounts of energy in a non-polluting way. Though tidal technology is still in the infant phase of development, a number of companies are engaged in research in tidal technology and a large number of tidal stations are being built in Europe and USA.
R&D recommendations:
• New concepts for increasing efficiencies and life expectancy of wavefarms under severe conditions.
• Development of new turbine designs that utilise the kinetic energy in tidal currents.
The fast mover
Although the production and installation of solar panels has proven to be a commercially viable enterprise and a whole industry has developed around it, new opportunities as well as challenges arise for the next generation of solar cells. High efficiencies provide promising perspectives with regard to sustainability, but the PV industry finds itself at a crossroads of opposite financial, technical and environmental interests. To take the most sustainable pathway will need further research and technological development.
Solar electricity (also named photovoltaics) is a key technology option for implementing the shift to a decarbonised energy supply. Solar resources in Europe and across the world are abundant and cannot be monopolised by one country. Even though PV has always been characterized by a huge potential, there were few people – not even 10 years ago - who would have predicted that by the end of 2012, the world would have installed over 100 GWp solar cells worldwide.
With currently about 2% of Europe’s energy demand generated through solar power, the growth of solar production in Europe has been enormous: 55% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last decade. In spite of negative economic conditions for the solar industry in the recent years, market opportunities have never been better and the solar cells are now competitive with other (non-renewable) power sources in many parts of the world.
In the past 5 years, PV electricity system prices decreased by over 60% in the most competitive markets, and in an increasing number of markets the cost of PVgenerated electricity is already cheaper than residential electricity retail prices. As solar technologies have been adopted, there have been major improvements and cost reductions. Currently, silicon-based solar cells account
for about 90% of the international market and have increased their market share at the expense of thin film cells in recent years. After the temporary silicon shortage between 2004 and 2008, silicon prices fell dramatically and the cost of wafer-based silicon solar cells decreased very rapidly.
Commercial solar cells, and hence solar module efficiencies have continued to increase. Based on choice of wafer and solar cell and module production process, efficiencies range from 12% to 21%, with monocrystalline module efficiencies ranging from 14% to 21%,and multicrystalline modules from 12% to 18%. The massive manufacturing capacity increases for both technologies were followed by the capacity expansions needed for polysilicon raw materials. Critical cost drivers, such as consumables (wear and spare parts), materials, and utilities are also technology drivers, to provide solutions for expensive wear parts such as crucibles (crystallization), slurry and wire (wafering) or critical materials, for instance: metallization pastes (cell), glass and back sheets (module), utility costs (energy plus water) in crystallization, wafering and cell processing as well as yield loss in wafering, cell and module manufacturing. Alternative solar cell technologies, particularly so-called tandem solar cells, show efficiencies up to 45% today, but their extent is limited by currently very high costs of production.
The solar industry is more competitive than ever. Still, the European solar industry is experiencing tough circumstances, due to lower margins and oversupply. The global industry has been marked by bankruptcies and industry research budgets have been drastically cut. These developments affect the research sector, both in terms of the size/volume of the research projects, and the requirements of industry participation for acquiring state funding. Norwegian solar cell research has many advantageous features, such as its mix of short term research relevant for the existing industry and long term, high risk research towards novel materials and PV technologies.
The Norwegian PV research community has a significant expertise in solar technology based on both silicon and other PV materials as well as an extensive state-of-theart infrastructure. However, a key challenge is to preserve the investments in infrastructure and expertise, so that the academic community remains well positioned when the profitability of the solar industry returns.
For the radically new technologies, the challenge is in many cases, to demonstrate the high efficiency values that are theoretically predicted. Also, it is challenging to identify materials that are suitable to be used in a sustainable PV technology.
In connection with energy efficiency in the building sector, solar cells and installation technology are relevant not only for the constructors, but also the end users in Norway. This is especially important with the introduction of future building standards with a focus on energy. We must improve our understanding of solar energy resources in Norway and the effect of the Norwegian climate. It is essential that in the initial phase these developments will be facilitated by politicians to increase the use of solar panels in Norway.
R&D recommendations:
• Increased materials research and development, for both silicon-based systems and new material systems, as well as nanomaterials andstructuring.
• Build on the international lead in silicon production and continue to develop environmentally friendly, cost- and energy efficient new methods for silicon production and refining.
• Develop new materials, processes and technologies for high efficiency solar cells and modules, including high quality wafers, and third generation concepts.
• Increase the activities in PV System integration, including competence building, ICT and system components, in order to prepare for the requirements from an increasing home market.
policy recommendations:
• Establish and/or strengthen pilot and teststations to assess the realistic potential of PV systems in Norway and to better understand the performance of stand alone and building integrated PV-solutions in Norway.
Drilling technology has been developed mainly through the oil and gas industries, but with the shift towards sustainable forms of energy production, a new perspective develops. The expertise that Norway possesses with regard to drilling can be effectively utilized in the national and global markets, if sufficient care is given to overcoming a number of yet unsolved technological barriers.
For renewable energy it has been estimated that the energy reserves of geothermal energy alone exceed the total global demand. However, the possibilities to access these sources outside volcanic areas are yet limited. Currently, drilling and well costs are some of the main obstacles that impede larger scale implementation worldwide. Norway has today a leading role in developing new technology for oil and gas production. This is based on a strong industrial value chain and the Norwegian model for research and research-based education. The combination of the industrial research and the public funding schemes for R&D has resulted in an oil and gas cluster, made up of industrial companies and international leading environments in universities and research institutes. Many players in this cluster see new opportunities in the development of technical solutions for extraction of geothermal energy and related industrial production of products for serving this goal.
Geothermal energy is traditionally divided into shallow (down to approx. 300m) and deep geothermal energy. Shallow geothermal energy is mainly derived from stored solar heat, while deep geothermal energy comes from radioactive fission and/or heat of the Earth. While Norway is advanced in the use of shallow geothermal heating (via heat pump systems), it has yet no deep geothermal systems. Geologically, Norway has long been
thought to have a poor thermal gradient down into the depths.
Subsequent mapping and drilling samples, including those from NGU, have shown that we are likely to have areas with higher thermal gradient than previously expected. This particularly applies to Svalbard where up to 40 °C/km has been measured.
In recent years there has been a fluctuating interest for deep geothermal energy in Europe, partly due to some seismic problems and lack of new cost effective technologies for drilling and well completion of geothermal wells. The interest is, however, now on the rise again, especially for plants that can produce heatto-heat distribution and/or low temperature electricity. Geothermal energy for electricity production is currently harvested mainly in volcanic areas where high geothermal values (300°C or higher) can be measured at 1.5 to 3 km depth. A better utilization of this potential is currently of great interest, particularly in Africa (countries bordering the Rift Valley) and around “The Ring of Fire” (Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Japan) and the Pacific coast of America).
The problems related to exploitation of geothermal energy vary with geological and geographical location. In Norway, the drilling costs have traditionally been
the biggest hurdle for the mainstream use of shallow geothermal energy. This situation has changed significantly in recent years due to better equipment and more players on the market. For deeper geothermal drilling, costs outside volcanic or hoot geological areas are currently so large that it is not possible to achieve economic plants without subsidies (as is the case in Germany).For deep geothermal plants, drilling and well activities may account for 50-80% of the cost. Drilling and well completions are done mostly with traditional oil equipment and procedures. This technology only applies sufficient to around 5000 meter depth and 200 °C. At greater depth/temperatures the cost increases
exponentially due to equipment failure (materials and electronic). In addition, drilling in hard rock lacks technology for fast drilling (1-2 m/hr to 30-40m/hr in sandstone). In volcanic/hot geothermal areas and at great well depth, chemical conditions are often also very challenging (examples here are CO2, H2S, scale).
The geographic location of a suitable geothermal site can be a major problem. In urban areas (most of Europe) induced seismic activities due to geothermal plants have to be avoided or minimized. In other parts of the world geothermal attractive areas may be located far from major cities and infrastructure is poorly developed (e.g. Indonesia and Australia).
In Norway there is enough expertise in deep drilling and well technologies, new materials and electronics in order to develop ways and methods to facilitate the more effective use of deep geothermal energy. This position can be exploited by developing similar or new technologies as for the oil and gas industry, where for example the Node group in southern Norway is a world leader, manufacturing 80% of innovative new drilling equipment for oil and gas. The strategic challenge for Norway will be to change our technical competence and industry from oil and gas to deep geothermal energy as a major export article in the future.
R&D recommendations:
• Adaptation of existing technologies and know how (such as those in the oil and gas industry) for use in geothermal energy exploration development.
• Development of new electronics and materials for high temperatures and pressures.
• Development and manufacturing of new specialised equipment for deep geothermal drilling and well completion.
Hydropower is a versatile technology, and there are many ways to utilize water for energy production. Pumped hydro storage enables large-scale energy storage and thus flexibility for other, intermittent renewables. Planning and implemention of pumped storage plants could however prove to be challenging due to financial and environmental considerations.
Europe’s development of renewable energy in the EU is expected to increase by about 520 TWh from 2010 to 2020, an estimated 305-400 TWh from wind power, approximately 100 TWh from solar PV and smaller amounts from bio- and hydropower. A strong continued development is also expected after 2020, with visions of a near 100% renewable energy system in Europe by 2050, according to the EU SET plan. Such large-scale development of unregulated and highly variable power is expected to provide significant challenges to the operation of the power system, and a growing need for power generation that can cover consumption during periods of low wind and sun, so-called balancing power. It will also be necessary to store very large amounts of energy excess production during periods of heavy wind and sun, typically 5 to 10 TWh over periods of up to a week or two, which is a characteristic time scale for wind systems North Sea area.
Since the purpose of the whole re-organization of the power system is to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, we should also adopt the balancing approach with the power coming from renewable energy sources - such as hydropower. The most promising renewable technology to meet both power and storage requirements for balancing power is the use of pumped reservoir storage. A pumped storage hydropower station must have two reservoirs for the storage of water, an upper and a lower. These should preferably be at a
place of great height difference and small horizontal distance between. Construction of the new reservoir will be a significant cost if there are no natural lakes or existing reservoirs that may be used, and often creates a too large and controversial interventions in the natural environment. Here the Norwegian hydropower system has a big advantage because it will be relatively easy and inexpensive to build new pumped storage hydropower stations without the need to build new reservoirs, as would normally be required in the rest of Europe. Balance power can also be produced by expanding output capacity of a hydropower plant, without pumping, by shutting down production and collect water in the reservoir in excess periods, and run extra hard in times of deficit. This is currently being done for example for balancing wind power in Denmark.
Today, there are a few pumped storage hydropower plants in Norway, but all of these are designed for seasonal pumping, to allow for inflow during the spring flood period in higher altitude reservoirs, and outflow production in the winter period. In Europe there are about 170 pumping plants with 45.000 MW pumped capacity, mostly aimed at balancing heat production around the clock, and therefore with very little longer term storage capacity. A typical European power plant has a capacity of 200-300 MW and can pump water for
Increasing versatility in hydropower
6-12 hours before the reservoir is full. There are specific plans for the construction of another 60 plants with a total capacity of 27.000 MW by 2020
A capacity upgrade to existing power plants requires only one (upper) reservoir, while the power plant should have an outlet to the sea, another reservoir or a large lake so that quick turn on/off does not create unnecessary problems below the outlet. In Norway , we have more than 140 power plants with maximum output of over of 50 MW. Eighty-nine of these were part of a study of the potential for expansion of power production conducted by NVE. The power plants in the analysis have an average life of 3.900 hours and a total installed capacity of 17.000 MW. Doubling this capacity reduces the total operating time with almost 2000 hours and a significantly increases the operational flexibility.
A survey conducted by NVE also shows that there are over 100 reservoir-pairs that may be suitable for the construction of pumped-storage plants, 20 of these have a reservoir capacity in both the upper and lower reservoir of more than 100 million m3. Studies conducted by CEDREN for some of these plants in South Norway show that at least 20.000 MW of new capacity in technical terms can be developed to produce increased power and balancing power- while using only existing reservoirs and storage capacity- of several TWh.
Pumped storage hydro will generate revenue by “magnification” of unregulated power that might otherwise be lost or sold at a low price. The development of 10.000 MW of pumped storage power plants will require investments in the order of 30-50 billion NOK. In addition, investments in power lines and/or cable connections to the continent will need to be taken into account. This creates the basis for significant potential employment both in the planning, development and operation sectors.
It is important to see the development of new power and pumped storage plants for balancing power in the context of the overall renovation and upgrading that
will be needed in the Norwegian hydropower system in the coming years. Much of this power system was developed in the period from the 1950s up to 1990, and there is an ever increasing need for upgrading and renewal, not only for purely technical reasons but also because of market conditions and because society’s views on environmental regulations are changing. In this context, the need to develop pumped-storage power and construction of pumped-storage plants are only two of several drivers that will influence the development. Research needs for the development of the Norwegian hydropower system can be divided into three categories: technological, market and environmental requirements. Pumped storage hydro is a mature technology, but there are special needs and challenges related to the type of development required for large-scale balance power, with particular emphasis on finding optimal solutions for the construction and operation of large pumped storage power plant with long waterways under widely varying operating. This places special requirements on ensuring stability and opportunity for frequent adjustment without incurring damage to waterways and machinery. Since the biggest cost will be the construction of tunnels and underground spaces, it is important to optimize the planning and operation methods and ensure the necessary capacity and expertise.
The market challenges lies in developing solutions to ensure stable revenues, triggering the investments that are needed, both in pumping power plants and transmission lines. In this context, the long planning and construction time for hydroelectric power plants and transmission lines is a significant challenge. However, the biggest challenges are perhaps environmental and in ensuring social acceptance for such developments . There will be challenges and objections to such a major development for the purpose of balancing production in Europe. The major conflicts are perhaps primarily related to the need for extensive development of new transmission system for power, both on land and sea cables. There will also be more adverse conditions in regulating reservoirs. In such reservoirs, there will be more frequent and greater variation in water levels and studies of the effects of environmental conditions in these reservoirs is therefore an important task.
R&D recommendations:
• Development of a pilot project where an existing or new pumping plant will be equipped so that it can be actively used for research and teaching, studying and optimizing the technical solutions, both for electromechanical equipment and tunnels.
• Development of good environmental design, studies of global and local impacts and benefits.
• Economic studies on income distribution, taxation, municipality/ landowner added value etc.
The utilization of biomass is currently well established, but needs to be developed strategically. The effectiveness of conversion, the access of new areas for biomass production, as well as logistics and the interaction with fluctuating energy prices are challenges that need to be solved by more versatile means than only technological improvements.
Worldwide bioenergy is the most commonly used renewable energy, amounting to 15% of the total energy supply. In the Nordic countries bioenergy makes 20% of the energy consumption in Sweden and Finland, 12% in Denmark and 7% (17 TWh in 2012) in Norway.
The Nordic bioresources are wood from forests and solid and liquid organic wastes from industry, households and agriculture. The biomass is mainly converted to heat used for heating buildings. A minor fraction is converted to electricity and liquid biofuels for transportation.
Half of the biomass presently used for energy purpose in Norway is used in wood stoves and pellet stoves for heating homes. The other half is input to district and local heating plants and to wood processing industry.
Today, the wood and pellets stoves perform high energy efficiency, 80-85%, and low particle emissions, about 6 g/kg dry wood. Wood stoves may ensure heating in cold periods when the power is expensive and/or insufficient. They have elegant design creating an attractive atmosphere in the home. The trade of fire wood has so far been without information on cost per unit energy. This may possibly be changed in order for the customer to compare energy sources directly.
There are about 100 district heating plants in Norway, producing 5 TWh of heat annually. The particle emissions are low, about 200 mg/m3 fluid gas. Also, technology reducing NOx emissions from non- woody wastes to a minimum have been developed. The energy efficiency is high, about 95% for the combustion process itself, the upstream and downstream chains not included. An intelligent regulation system which takes the weather changes and customer behaviour into consideration can help to avoid downstream waste of energy.
New technology and microbial knowledge has increased the energy efficiency of biogas reactors from about 60 to 70%. Development of new thermal and enzymatic processes has opened for lignocellulosic biomass, which is hard to degrade, to be included in the biogas feedstock. The biogas production in Norway is low. However, during the recent years 15 plants have been constructed or planned, some near big towns where food waste is being converted to fuel for buses.
There are three main challenges to overcome to meet the target of doubling the bioenergy production. These are the amount of available biomass, conversion efficiency and profitability.
Increasing the forest biomass supply can lead to higher
logistics costs, if new areas are more difficult to access. More efficient logistics can hardly eliminate the cost increase, and higher feedstock price may be the result. Increasing the municipal waste supply is closely linked to public regulations and political decisions. Here the political power on municipality level is the main driving force.
Improving efficiency means to match the characteristics of the biomass feedstock (fire-wood, wood chips, pellets, wastes) with the characteristics of the technology used for energy conversion, and vice versa, calling for close collaboration between the biological and technological sciences.
The profitability for the district heating industry depends on electricity price, as stated in public regulations. This means that low el-price gives low profit for the bioenergy sector. Persevering low price is a serious problem, especially for new plants with high investment costs.
Realising a medium or large biogas plant involves many stakeholders upstream and downstream, leading to collaborative and contractual challenges. Each stakeholder needs to quantify its profit and see its role in the consortium.
The worldwide potential for increasing energy production from forest virgin biomass, agriculture residues and waste is large. In Norway a doubling to about 30 TWh/
year is a realistic target, mainly based on forest feedstock without compromising sustainability.
Europe is short of biomass and Norway, with its large forest biomass reserves, can play a role as supplier. International trade of chips, wood residues and pellets may grow due to the EU RES 2020 target. The highest growth is expected in wood fired CHP mills using logging residues and wood pellets. To obtain best price and minimum transportation costs, the energy density of the biomass products must be high.
The maximum biogas energy production in Norway is calculated to 6 TWh/year. Assumed improved profitability and energy efficiency one third of this potential might be realized, as approved by the Ministry of food and agriculture.
Another interesting possibility is to develop ‘smart energy technology’ for industrial clusters – where energy is utilized by different industries within a local community that may cooperate to provide and share electricity, heating and cooling in a smarter and more efficient way.
R&D recommendations:
• Analyse the profitability for the forestto-heat value chains.
• Analyse the energy efficiency and the profitability for small and medium biogas reactors.
• Develop bioenergy systems for low energy house standards.
• Identify links between bioenergy and other energies to ensure sufficient heat supply throughout the year.
• Describe bioenergy climate and environment impacts.
Production of biofuels and chemicals in an integrated biorefinery concept is commercially and technologically viable. In order to develop sustainable and effective methods of production, value chain analyses should be high on the agenda.
The production of biofuels continues to be a substantial part of a strategy towards a more sustainable society and economy. Its importance is already being recognized by the International Energy Agency by establishing the goal that in 2050, biofuels should fulfil more than 25% of the global demand for transportation fuels in order to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. Development in Europe targets the production of biobased fuels from non-food sources and require a profound knowledge of advance conversion technologies. The Norwegian industries, universities and institutes have built up a considerable knowledge on the production of fuels and chemicals from fossil fuels. This generic knowledge on advanced conversion technologies offers a strategic opportunity for Norway in terms of collaboration, exchange of expertise and the development of production technologies to ensure cost efficient and environmentally sound production of biobased fuels and chemicals.
So-called first-generation biofuels (such as bioethanol and biodiesel) are being produced from sugar, starch and oily seeds in plants and are commercially available in many countries around the globe. Second and third generation biofuels are made from other sources, such as wood, waste from agrarian activities, marine biomass and whole plants. This type of production is based on several key conversion technologies such as biochemical and
thermochemical conversion. Biochemical technologies include fermentation of biomass to biogas, bio-ethanol, bio-butanol or chemicals; whereas thermochemical processes include pyrolysis and gasification of biomass combined with catalytic processes for the production of liquid fuel (diesel or jet fuel) from synthesis gas or pyrolysis oils. Currently, the commercialization of biogas production is an ongoing process, however the production of liquid biofuels is mainly focused on first generation sources which are corn (in the US) or sugarcane (in Brazil) for the production of ethanol.
Currently, processes are being developed for the simultaneous production of both biofuel and chemicals to improve the efficiency and profitability of biofuel production,
This trend is analogous to existing refineries based on fossil oil. The technology of integrated bio-refineries for simultaneous production of biofuels is currently under commercialization with a corresponding need for comprehensive innovation through research and development. The EU has set as a target that 10% of the fossil fuels have to be replaced by biofuels by 2020. Norway has set similar goals for 2020. As of today, biofuels cover approximately 4.3% of the total Norwegian fuel production.
The energy consumption in the Norwegian transport
sector approximates 60 TWh/year. The Norwegian biofuel production areal growth rate is generally too low for profitable production of first-generation biofuels, but smaller amounts of biodiesel are being produced from rapeseed. Second generation biofuels can be produced from wood or marine raw materials such as macroalgae., which have a much larger potential production and thus a greater utilization potential but are as of yet not commercially produced as biofuels. Borregaard has a small but technically advanced production of approximately 20-25 Ml Bio-ethanol, of which only just 2Ml is utilized in Norway. The potential for the use of self-produced biofuels in the EU is estimated to be around 25-30%. To date most of the consumption is covered through imports from countries such as Brazil.
The market for biomass-based chemicals and materials is growing rapidly. Generally, chemicals that are produced from fossil raw materials can also be produced from biomass. On the world market, sales of around 25 Billion US$ for bulk chemicals are expected, approximately 10 Billion US$ for fine- and specialty chemicals and about 3 Billion US$ for bio-plastics by 2015 with a potential 10% increase in production per year.
A major non-technical challenge for the emerging industry is the competition with other uses of biomass. Larger withdrawals and use of biomass for refinery and energy production will affect other market segments such as pulp and paper industries and thus the price structure. Production of both terrestrial and marine biomass for production of second and third generation biofuels must be sustainable to maintain biodiversity.
For the efficient production of biofuels and chemicals advanced integrated systems need to be developed which consider optimal utilization of both chemicals, electricity and heat. Currently, both necessary technological innovations and economical aspects can be considered as challenges. New optimized and sustainable processes will require extensive innovative solutions. An optimization of the product portfolio combined with the development of new cost and energy-efficient processes
and treatment technologies are key challenges for both thermo chemical and biochemical production.
Although the future for biomass based fuels and chemicals is certainly bright and many possibilities will open up due to technological advancements, specific research is necessary to ensure its effective production. Value chain analysis is one of the main topics that deserve further research. The conversion of raw materials to an industrial feedstock, the conversion from biomass to chemicals, biofuels, heat and electricity can be done in many ways, and the possibilities should be critically explored to
demonstrate their feasibility and profitability. Potential effects on the environment and emissions should be investigated to ensure that the processes that are being developed are truly sustainable. A strategic chance is the development of large, fully integrated processing plants that accommodate advanced energy efficient conversion systems which enable the development of various value chains in parallel. This strategy will allow for the evolution of expert knowledge and the creation of economic development by generation of advanced production technologies within a European framework. Further, such development will reduce the dependence on imported fuels and stimulating the national economy.
R&D recommendations:
• Develop suitable models for raw materials treatment and logistics.
• Development of advanced systems for the integration of thermo-chemical and bio-chemical conversion processes.
• Value chain analysis of biofuels, as well possibilities for co-production of heat and energy.
policy recommendations:
• Demonstration and profitability of various value chains and production methods should be demonstrated and tested in plants of a sufficient size.
By utilizing thermal gradients, heat pumps can substantially reduce CO 2 emissions. Waste heat can be more effectively utilized and industry clusters could use their excess heat to optimze heating, cooling and various production processes. These are only a few examples of the potentials of heat pumps. The technology is well-developed, but needs to be researched still further to work on an industrial scale.
Naturally, heat will by itself flow from a warm to a colder place. Heat pumps possess the unique property, that they may take up heat from a low temperature level and transport it to a higher temperature. To achieve this, we must supply energy, most usual in the form of electricity. The ratio between the heat delivered and the electricity spent, is called the heating factor. Heat pumps may be utilized successfully both in buildings and industry.
Within the building sector we need energy BOTH to supply and remove heat from the rooms to sustain a comfortable indoor temperature around the year, AND to produce hot water for different purposes. Around half of the 80 TWh energy spent in Norwegian buildings is used to support heating demands (40-45 TWh). In their analysis ‘Klimakur’ has calculated that this will increase to 50-55 TWh in 2030.
Heat pumps constitute a technology that make it possible to support heating demands in an efficient way, so that we may reduce substantially the energy use for these purposes. Heat pumps makes it possible to gather free of charge renewable heat from the so-called ‘ambient’, that is ambient air, water or underground, and increase the temperature of this heat so much that it may be used within the house for ‘heating’. Likeways the same ‘heat pump’ may be used in summer to
transport heat from the indoor rooms and deliver it to the hot outdoor air, so that a comfortable indoor temperature may be sustained (‘climate cooling’).
The electric energy (or work) needed to operate heat pumps is substantially lower than the heat supplied, because most of the heat delivered is collected ‘free of charge’ from the ambient.The ratio between delivered heat Q and the electricity used W, is defined as ‘heating factor’, which is used to represent the efficiency of the heat pump. If the average heating factor is 4 over the season, it means that 75% of the heat delivered to the building is gathered free of charge from the ambient, while 25% come from the electricity used to operate the heat pump. This electricity is converted and utilized by the heat pump.
The heating factor is depending strongly on the temperature difference between the room and the heat source – small temperature difference will give higher heating factor. If we collect heat from cold air, we get the lowest heating factor. If we can gather heat from sea water or underground, where the source temperature is higher, the heating factor will increase. Why technology for heat exchange with the ground receive more attention.
The application of heat pumps in Norway was delayed for specific reasons, but it took off around
Broad applications for an established technology with development potential
whereoff 5-6 TWh was gathered from ambient air and water. Forecasts for 2020 show that heat pumps will deliver around 20 TWh (12 TWh free of charge from the ambient). Thus the ambient will be a substantial renewable energy source in future – also in Norway.
When heat pumps replace electric heating (based on hydropower), valuable electricity will be available for alternative value creating activity; export or inland power refining process industry.
When heat pumps substitute oil or gas fired heating plants (which receive high attention in the Climate Report), this will contribute to reduce CO2-emissions substantially, even when the electricity comes from thermal power stations. Therefore heat pumps constitute an environment-friendly, efficient energy technology both on the national and international market.
Heat pumps have environmental problems because they used to utilize so-called halocarbons as working fluid. These are produced and supported chemical industry. The ozone-problem (Montreal Protocol) was solved by changing the working fluid from CFC to HFC. However HFCs are strong greenhouse gases that were included in the Kyoto Protocole. In Norway we have made priority to develop technology that utilize so called ‘natural working fluids’ (CO2, NH3 etc.). This strategy was promoted by the late professor Gustav Lorentzen, who also developed a successful patent based on CO2 as working fluid. This
technology possesses a large international potential. It could be mentioned that to-day there are almost 4 million tap water heat pumps (‘Eco-Cuto’) for individual houses in Japan based on Norwegian technology, originally brought forward by Hydro Aluminum.
The competence on CO2-technology is strong in Norway. This competence has already been utilized by Norwegian companies that have developed tap water heat pumps for larger houses and for super markets; cooling and heating equipment for cars; refrigeration plants on fishing vessels and several other areas of application.
Heat Pumps may also be utilized to make industrial processes more energy efficient, and make energy available for other purposes. The potential may be substantially increased if we may develop better solutions for high temperature heat pumps; to utilize low temperature waste heat (20 – 100 oC) to cover heat demand at higher temperature (100-200 oC). Solutions based on steam-compression-processes for natural working fluids (CO2, NH3, Hydro Carbons and H2O) could also be developed to produce electricity, based on the competence within CfRE. Further solutions based on absorption and compression-absorption principles should also be investigated.
Another huge possibility is to develop ‘smart energy technology’ for industrial clusters – where energy is utilized by different industries within a local community that may cooperate to provide and share electricity, heating and cooling in a smarter and more efficient way.
R&D recommendations:
• Develop customized applications for heat pumps in the domestic and industrial sectors.
• Develop high temperature heat pumps based on natural working fluids for industrial purposes.
policy recommendations:
• Launch an initiative to develop CO2 heat pumps for warm tap water and climatization of future ‘Zero Emission Buildings.’
In the quest for energy efficiency, the utilization of thermo-electricy has emerged as a novel and promising alternative. Utilizing waste heat from industries is a potentially fertile ground for the electricity generation. Although the basic principles of thermo-electricity are well understood, the construction and scaling of installations proves to be challenging.
While the search for alternative sources of energy continues, thermoelectricity has emerged as a highly promising and novel alternative to traditional heat pumps and heat engines. The technology surrounding thermoelectricity relies on thermoelectric materials that make up the thermoelectric module. These special materials make it possible to convert heat gradients, having one cold and one hot source directly into electricity, or to apply electricity to these materials to heat or cool. This technology works without relying on any moving parts or working fluids or gases. Thermoelectricity is thus a technology which excellent flexibility, scalability, portability and longevity. In addition to the recovery of waste heat, thermoelectricity can also be used to generate electricity from heat sources where no other alternative exist or is suitable.
Considering that the most common energy conversion processes expel almost 60% of the input energy as waste heat, recovering parts of this energy would have tremendous impact on multiple levels. In this setting, thermoelectricity is expected to contribute, particularly in areas where it is difficult to utilize the waste energy as a direct heat source in steam engines, buildings or in general to heat water. Examples of this are waste heat in the transport sector (including sea vessels and airplanes) and waste heat from industrial processing plants. Furthermore, it is possible to generate electricity from small temperature gradients of a few degrees,
which open new possibilities for applications and selfsustainability of integrated technology.
Large scale commercialization of thermoelectricity is today limited by too low conversion efficiency, commercial challenges such as up-scaling and high production costs, environmental issues due to the heavy and toxic elements composing the module and finally, degradation over time.
The tightly interwoven relationship between electricity and heat is inherent to these modules and involves the exploration of uncharted territories related to the understanding of the basic principles in material science. Further development of this technology depends on long-term research investments in order to obtain the necessary knowledge to fully map these interactions.
Addressing these issues would put Norway on the map internationally, not only as a nation developing stateof-the-art technology at lab scale in Universities and Research Institutions, but also as a country that generates a breeding ground for venture companies outside the oil sector. Most importantly, Norway will contribute by taking responsibilities for the world’s need to use energy
in a more sustainable manner. We recommend that Norway pursues this path. The challenges that need to be addressed are multidimensional and must to be executed on several levels. To develop a mature technology, investments in basic and applied research must be sustained over a period of decades. At the same time, funding need to be available in order to stimulate commercialization during this period.
R&D recommendations:
• Elevate current state-of-the-art efficiency by new materials solutions and concepts.
• Research to eliminate the us of toxic and non-abundant materials in thermoelectric applications.
• Reduce the degradation of modules and their materials.
policy recommendations:
• Stimulate commercialization efforts, particularly related to up-scaling and the production of modules containing non-toxic and abundant elements.
With the increasing efficiency of energy production methods (i.e. solar power, wind power...) and the emergence of electric vehicles the question of storage becomes increasingly relevant. Batteries will fullfil an important role in any sustainable energy system. This means that research on battery capacity, materials, environmental effects and production methods will become of vital strategical importance.
The integration of large amounts of intermittent renewable energy such as wind and solar power and the management of complex interactions between suppliers and customers will be two core challenges in the operation of any electricity grid in the near future. Energy storage capacity on both long- and short-term basis will play an important role in these future grids. The transition from large, centralized power production to a more decentralized system will require a range of new energy storage technologies.
The explosive growth of consumer electronics in need of electric energy have has during the last decade triggered massive investments in battery technology, with major advances in battery capacity, power and lifetime. The use of batteries in zero-emission transport solutions and large scale energy storage will eventually yield significantly higher volumes and revenues than consumer electronics, but will require a stronger need for longevity.
Although battery manufacturers today are concentrated in Asia, much of the value chain of the materials and chemicals for the batteries is still located in high-cost countries such as USA and Germany. In electronics and the electric car market, capacity is a primary requirement, and thus Li-ion technology is especially well suited for
this role. On the anode side, silicon is well known as a promising material with much higher density of Li than carbon. As the capacity of current Li-ion batteries is cathode limited, and the cathode has the highest material costs, considerable research effort is being directed at increasing the cathode capacity, focusing on environmentally friendly, safer and cheaper materials. Nano-structuring of the active electrode materials is seen as one promising path towards enhancing kinetics and battery life. Whereas lithium ion batteries are commercially available today, there are several novel technologies that hold great promise, but still face technological challenges to be overcome prior to implementation.
Among those suggested for automotive applications, lithium-sulphur and lithium-air batteries are thought to have great potential, but the use of elemental lithium imposes challenges both technologically and with regards to battery safety. Due to their potentially low cost and the abundance of starting materials, interest in zinc-air batteries has also been rekindled over the last few years. For stationary applications, completely different battery chemistries, such as molten salt, liquid metal, sodium sulphur (NAS) batteries and magnesiumbased batteries have an advantage over lithium-based batteries due to their lower cost and more abundant starting materials. Suggestions have also been made to explore the re-use of batteries that can no longer be
used in cars as a niche market for stationary solutions.
Batteries are complex systems that require the combination of expertise in materials science, electrochemistry, physical characterization, modelling, thermal physics, and numerous other disciplines. Norway is well-equipped with relevant competence in these fields and there are currently several research groups with battery research activities. There are currently no battery manufacturers in Norway, but there are however large users of batteries, and manufacturers of several types of materials that could be used in batteries. The main challenges faced in Norway at this time are
related to the use of batteries in the offshore and marine sector, with particular emphasis on lifetime prediction and safety. The development of batteries that can withstand extreme conditions, such as high temperature and high pressure-tolerant batteries for offshore applications, low temperature batteries for use in cold climates and very high longevity batteries for remote installation is also likely to be a focus area in the years to come.
Batteries will eventually require large amounts of materials, if they are expected to fill all proposed niches. Eco-friendly and available materials, as well as re-use and recycling of the materials will become increasingly
relevant, as the demand for capacity and production increases. Future restrictions on the use of toxic solvents (e.g. NMP) in electrode fabrication are likely to be imposed, creating a need for fabrication methods based on more environmentally benign solvents. Introduction of larger battery packs in ever more demanding applications requires more advanced battery management systems to ensure good battery life, performance and safe operation. Efforts aimed at increasing of volumetric capacity for automotive and portable applications, as well as more environmentally friendly manufacturing and recycling methods is foreseen.
The existing Norwegian processing and metallurgical industries, as well as manufacturers of binder materials
for potential use in electrodes can fill niches early in the value chain for batteries. To ensure flexibility in application, materials should be optimized for battery usage, for example through nano-structuring. In particular, the production of silicon, aluminium and magnesium, as well as mineral extractions stands out as relevant industries for further research into this field.
Norwegian researchers should establish themselves as attractive partners for international research by developing expertise in strategic niches along the value chain, in collaboration with partners with broader expertise. Such cooperation will again demand longterm initiatives.
R&D recommendations:
• Development of environmentally friendly material and component manufacturing solutions and recycling technologies.
• Development of battery chemistries for extreme temperature and pressure conditions.
• Development of methods for lifetime prediction and testing.
• Development of battery technologies for large-scale energy storage.
• Optimization of materials for higher performance, longer life battery solutions.
Renewable energy could be stored as hydrogen, and used as fuel in vehicles or in stationary power production. However, the full implementation of hydrogen applications on an large scale still asks for further research and demonstration activities.
Internationally leading auto manufacturers and European energy companies agreed that hydrogen will play a key role both as fuel for transportation as well as an energy storage medium for a steadily increasing share of renewable energy sources in stationary power production. According to IEA’s Blue Map scenario hydrogen must be implemented as fuel in transportation in order to achieve the IPCCs 2oC goals. Moreover, the European Commission’s SET-plan concludes that hydrogen and fuel cells constitute key enabling technologies to reach the vision of a low carbon society.
Hydrogen exhibits high gravimetric energy density and can provide the required flexibility with respect to both medium and long term (seasonal) energy storage and long driving range when hydrogen is used as fuel for transportation applications. Hydrogen may be produced by splitting water utilizing e.g. wind energy during periods when power supply exceeds demand. When there is less wind (or sunshine), hydrogen is reelectrified in fuel cells (FCs) and the power delivered to the grid. Alternatively, hydrogen is mixed into e.g. biogas and burned in combined heat and power plants or used as pre-cursor for production of synthetic fuels (e.g., methane or methanol) or various chemicals.
The technological challenges which ten years ago were
identified as critical for the successful implementation of fuel cells (FC) in vehicles have all been solved. Startup and operation in temperatures down to -30oC has been demonstrated, the driving range of today’s FCEVs prototypes is 400-800 km and the refuelling time is reduced to 3 minutes. Moreover, the volume of the FC systems has been reduced to a level at which the complete power train can be implemented without reducing the space in the vehicle. FCEVs have also shown operability in the harsh Nordic winter climate and since the FC in addition to electricity also produces some heat (at ~80 °C) the driving range is not significantly reduced in cold climate. According to US DoE FC systems for automotive applications (typically 80-100 kW) are already cost competitive with combustion engines when the number of produced units reach half a million. Hyundai started production of the first 1000 FCEVs already in January 2013 and Toyota and Honda recently reconfirmed that their FCEVs will be launched in the market in 2015 at an affordable price.
Although the main driver for the development of FCs has been the use in vehicles, many of the FC types are best suited for stationary applications. Common for these FC types is that they usually operate at higher temperatures and that the systems are designed for the heat to be utilized. FCs for stationary applications can also operate on various fuels such as natural gas, LPG, biogas, and methanol, featuring high electric efficiency (50-60%
A key to the utilization of intermittent renewable energy
even for small units), high grade heat utilization, and CO2 separation and concentration as an integral part of the energy conversion process. Thus, carbon capture is simplified considerably compared with conventional combustion technologies, where CO2 is emitted in diluted gas mixtures. Several 10.000 FC units (kW) have been installed in Japanese households, MW-sized power plants are in operation in e.g. California and a 60 MW FC based power plant is under construction in Korea. In Germany large scale hydrogen production from wind for grid stabilization is being pursued, facilitating increased utilization of renewable energy.
In general, hydrogen technologies have reached the maturity level needed to facilitate large scale introduction of renewable energy sources in stationary power supply as well as hydrogen as fuel in transportation. Current prototype FCEVs are still somewhat heavier than conventional cars. However, more auto manufacturers confirm that the FCEVs to be launched in the market in 2015 will have the same weight and load capacity as comparable cars with combustion engines.
The remaining challenges for hydrogen technologies are in general durability and cost, leaving the focus of R&D activities towards new materials. The lifetime of e.g. FCs for cars and buses today ranges from 2500 to 4000 operating hours, corresponding to 100.000-160.000 km. Hence, the lifetime must at least be doubled before FC technology for automotive applications is competitive.
The production cost of FCEVs is, as for most other
technologies, very dependent on production volume. Thus, in the initial phase of deployment the cost of FCEVs is expected to be significantly higher than that of cars with combustion engines. Similarly, for electrolysers and hydrogen storage technologies cost reduction is required for commercialization.
Moreover, there are needs for further development and adaptation of system components, as the efficiency and reliability of today’s hydrogen systems suffer from the use of of-the-shelf components (pumps, heat exchangers, valves, etc.) developed for other applications. Tailor-made components are required to fully exploit the potential of these novel technologies.
Particularly interesting for Norwegian stakeholders is hydrogen production from unregulated renewable energy (wind and small-scale hydro) and from natural gas in power plants with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The use of hydrogen and FCs in maritime transport and energy systems for remote areas with limited or no network access also represents a viable niche market segment.
Norway has played a pioneering role in hydrogen production since the late 1920s, as basis for large scale fertilizer production. Based on industrial as well as academic competence Norway can play a central role as supplier of technology to the growing market for hydrogen technologies, early market for FCEVs based on the world’s most effective incentives and exporter of hydrogen in a 2030-perspective.
R&D recommendations:
• Development of new materials for lower cost and durable hydrogen technologies, including electrolysers, storage solutions and fuel cells.
• Development of customized system components tailor-made for hydrogen applications.
recommendations:
• Pilot- and full scale demonstration of cost-effective system-integrated hydrogen production and reelectrification.
The utilization of waste outputs is a theme that underlies the notion of the circular economy. An output stream that could be used to enhance industry effiency is waste heat. The potential amount of energy that could be recovered in this way is large, but effective utilization asks for technological and organizational measures.
The Norwegian industry emits a vast amount of waste heat energy. This heat energy could in principle be utilized, but common challenges are that it is difficult to utilize it close to where the industry is located and that it has a temperature level which is too low to be utilized. It is three main possibilities to valorize this waste energy:
• Produce electricity by implementing a power cycle
• Increase the temperature level by utilization of high temperature heat pumps
• Establish industry clusters where heat demanding industries establish close to the industry having waste heat available.
A further possibility to reduce the amount of waste heat and/or to valorize the temperature level of the heat, is of course to enhance the industry processes in itself.
Power cycles are being implemented in industries having large amounts (MWs) of high temperature (>400°C) exhaust gas available. For medium to low (250-100°C) temperature waste heat power cycles are implemented to a lesser extent, partly because the existing options have a too low efficiency and partly because the systems are too expensive.
Waste heat is often available at temperatures which are not useful for internal use in the industry producing it or by potential users close to the industry. By utilization of high temperature heat pumps the waste heat could be valorized and delivered at a useful temperature level. High temperature heat pumps able to deliver heat at temperature levels in the range 90-250°C is to a small extent available for industry. For larger capacities water (steam) heat pumps are implemented either in open vapor recompression systems or closed vapor compression systems. For medium to large capacities there is a need to develop new technology based on environmentally benign working fluids.
Both power cycles and high temperature heat pumps need to capture heat from the industry sources which often requires specialized heat exchangers often operating in very challenging environments. This raises challenges such as:
• Handling of dirty gases causing particle deposition, scaling etc.
• Heat exchange close to industry processes limiting the working fluids or heat transfer fluids that may be accepted.
• Heat exchangers and working fluids able to accept high temperatures
Improved industry competitiveness by improving energy efficiency
• Specializes heat exchanger concepts, e.g. to capture heat from cooling of process elements
This raises a need for developing reliable and cost efficient heat exchanger concept that can be implemented for heat recovery in industry
Waste heat available from one industry may be utilized by one or more industries in an industry cluster. In principle this seems straight forward, but in practice there are several challenges, examples are:
• Coincidence of demand and supply of heat
• Different owners of the different industries that may have different interests
• Risk if one or more of the industries are shut down
There exist successful examples of industry clusters, but so far they are more the exemption from the rule. The potential is large and should be explored.
The strong competence basis existing in Norway in general, and at NTNU-SINTEF more specifically, related to refrigeration technology and steam power cycles should be utilized to develop cost efficient power cycles for lower temperature waste heat and for high temperature heat pumps. A considerable knowledge also exists in the same competence environments regarding heat exchanger development and heat exchanging issues that can be utilized contribute in this area. The knowledge basis can further be utilized to initiate development of successful industry clusters.
R&D recommendations:
• Increase the knowledge related to heat capturing technology in order to develop novel cost efficient heat exchanging technologies.
• Increase the knowledge related to heat capturing technology in order to develop novel cost efficient heat exchanging technologies.
• Develop more cost-efficient power cycles for low to medium temperature heat sources (100-250°C) based on benign working fluids.
• Develop industry cluster concepts to minimize emissions of waste heat.
Perhaps the shift towards a sustainable economy will be most clearly visible in the transport sector. New possibilities to use biofuel, hydrogen, electricity or combinations of these will undoubtly re-shape the future highway environment, travel and transport dynamics and also the landscape itself. Many promising technologies are on the verge of being implemented on a large scale - making long-term sustainability an important research agenda.
Transport contributes by around 25% to the global GHG emissions and comparably in Norway by 33%. The higher share in Norway is primarily due to stationary power generation being fully covered by hydroelectric sources, and secondly due to Norway’s demography and the massive coastal traffic. In Norway road transportation alone contributes by 25% to the total domestic GHG emissions, and both road and maritime transport have experienced a significant growth over the last decades. With an annual domestic energy consumption in transportation of about 60 TWh and vast amounts of un-exploited renewable energy available the transport sector represents a key area for GHG emission reductions in Norway.
The predominance of fossil fuels in transportation is still high although fuels based on renewable resources have been introduced in some market segments. As part of the European Union’s ambitious strategy for reducing the CO2-emission, a new directive is being introduced in order to secure the supply of alternative fuels through a parallel development of refuelling infrastructure for natural gas, electricity, biofuels and hydrogen. It is foreseen that various fuels and propulsion technologies will dominate different segments of transport in the future. (See figure on the opposite page).
The European Commission’s overview of which fuels are suitable for various segments of transport. The proposal
for the directive was launched January 2013, and the general approach was adopted by Member States December 2013.
In the directive natural gas is also included as this will provide environmental benefits with respect to emission of particulates and NOX when replacing diesel in some market segments, like in heavy duty vehicles and in maritime transport. This SFFE strategy will, however, focus on fuels which are purely based on renewable energy and will therefore only consider electricity, biofuels and hydrogen.
When evaluating these alternative fuels’ potential contribution to emission reductions it is important to include the availability of resources. Although biofuels according to the figure may be used in all market segments, biofuels should (due to limited availability) be reserved for segments of transport where there are no or few other alternatives, like in heavy duty transport over longer distances, maritime transport and aviation. Furthermore, to secure optimal utilization of renewable based electricity as well as biomass, it is crucial to realize that stationary power production and transport are competing for these same resources.
Electric propulsion of vehicles is nothing new. At the turn
Alternative fuels and power sources to reach zero-emission transportation
of the 18th century, more battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were sold than cars with internal combustion engines (ICEs). During the late 1960s the first fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) was demonstrated, in which the energy is stored as hydrogen and converted to electricity upon demand. Since the (re-)introduction of the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) Toyota Prius in the passenger car market in 1997, most auto manufacturers now offer hybrid versions of some of their models. Moreover, bio-based fuels have been utilised for almost a century, although initially at low shares. Europe is currently producing significantly volumes of bio fuels and is targeting a 10% of biofuels in 2020.
BEVs are available from many auto manufacturers and are currently selling very well in Norway, totalling 20.000 vehicles registered by the end of 2013, related to tax exemptions and a wide range of benefits for BEVs and FCEVs. High sales are also expected in the next years. HEVs combine a conventional ICE with an electric drive-train and a small battery pack, thereby reducing fuel consumption significantly for city driving at varying
load, for which regenerative braking represents the major part of these savings. HEVs now take more than a 50% share of Toyota’s sales in Norway. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have a larger battery pack than HEVs which may be charged from the grid. The number of PHEV models on the market is increasing, but they are still selling in low numbers due to higher cost than cars with conventional ICE power trains.
Hydrogen Hydrogen powered FCEVs are technologically mature (see also the chapter Hydrogen applications) and will in the period 2014-2017 be introduced to the market by several leading auto manufacturers; Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Daimler, Nissan and Ford. The number of vehicles is, however, currently limited to some hundreds globally. Several demonstration projects within public transportation (buses) are also in progress. Political engagement is increasing especially at regional level. Application of hydrogen as fuel in maritime transport has recently also received attention. Public support for establishment of hydrogen infrastructure is a prerequisite for FCEVs to take market shares.
European Commission’s overview of which fuels are suitable for various segments of transport. The proposal for the directive was launched January 2013, and the general approach was adopted by Member States December 2013.
In Norway the agrarian crops growth rate is generally too low for profitable production of first generation biofuels, unless larger quantities of biodiesel is produced from rape seeds. Second generation bio fuels can, however, be produced from wood or marine raw materials like macro algae, which have a high potential in Norway.
According to Statistics Norway (SSB) the potential for utilization of Norwegian woods, biogas and seaweed as resources for biofuels all together cover 2300 million litres fuel annually. [1] As comparison, the fuel consumption for coastal traffic is 1800 million litres/ year and for the domestic air traffic 1000 million litres/ year. The total fuel consumption for transport in Norway in 2011 was 7700 million litres. [2] The resources for biofuel could hence, cover around 30% of the required fuel in Norway.
Substitution of conventional crude oil based fuels with renewable alternatives like electricity, hydrogen and biofuels constitute viable options to reach zero-emission transportation. However, the varying degree of efficiency and competition regarding resources require that several technologies are developed in parallel to ensure
sufficient supply of renewable energy for transportation applications. Introduction of one fuel or new propulsion technology alone will not solve the overall problem we are facing.
Driving range still limits the widespread deployment of BEVs for intercity driving, but the establishment of a network of super-chargers along the main roads is in progress, extending the use of BEVs to rural areas. Despite tax reduction based on CO2-emissions for PHEVs in Norway these are still more expensive than the corresponding vehicles utilising conventional ICE power trains.
Limited access to and high initial cost for hydrogen as fuel also constitute important challenges, which needs to be resolved before the FCEVs can be introduced in the market and represent a realistic alternative for the end user. Incentives for fuel-providers must be introduced in order to stimulate the investments in and profitable operation of hydrogen refuelling stations until these become commercially viable.
Introduction of biofuels to the current transport system is possible and requires limited changes to the infrastructure. However, the lack of cost efficient conversion technologies for marine and terrestrial
R&D recommendations:
• Ensure commercially competitive biobased fuels, including biogas for all sustainable production paths through a combination of tax incentives and research activities.
policy recommendations:
• Public support for establishing charging/refuelling infrastructure for electic vehicles and biofuels is needed to support deployment of sustainable transportation.
• Preserving the tax exemption incentives for zero-emission vehicles until their number exceeds 50.000 or until these are commercially competitive.
• A joint assessment with respect to availability of and demand for energy across stationary power production and transportation.
R&D recommendations:
• Develop more cost-efficient power cycles for low to medium temperature heat sources (100-250°C) based on benign working fluids.
• Increase the knowledge related to heat capturing technology in order to develop novel cost efficient heat exchanging technologies.
policy recommendations:
• Develop industry cluster concepts to minimize emissions of waste heat.
The built environment has a long lifecycle, during which it traditionally contributes to continuous CO 2 emissions and inefficient use of energy. Building efficiency aims at reducing the negative impacts of these two phenomena, as well as adding the production of renewable energy to the mix. In order to accomplish these ambitious goals, a thorough integration of engineering, materials science and novel building concepts is needed.
Over the last few years the market for low-energy houses in Norway has experienced a rapid development. The demand for passive houses, i.e. houses with an energy loss of less than 25% of normal standard, is also growing rapidly, both in Norway and in Europe. This has led to an incipient development of new Norwegian products for this market. During the last 2-3 years zero-emission buildings have been planned, and the first ones will be completed in 2014. These buildings do not contribute to greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetime.
Approximately 40 percent (87TWh) of the energy used in mainland Norway goes to lighting, heating and electrical equipment in homes and commercial buildings. 80 percent of this is electricity. In the building regulations scheduled for 2015, Passive House standard is expected to be the requirement for all new buildings. Further, two White Papers from the government to Stortinget: ‘Gode bygg for eit betre samfunn – Ein framtidsretta bygningspolitikk’ [Good buildings for a better society –building policy for the future] and ‘Norsk klimapolitikk’ [Norwegian Climate Policy] points toward stricter requirements. Both White Papers stresses that within 2020 the energy use in buildings should be nearly zero. This is also in accordance to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD). On 19 May 2010, the EU adopted the EPBD which is the main
legislative instrument to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. Under this Directive, Member States must establish and apply minimum energy performance requirements for new and existing buildings. Moreover, the Directive requires Member States to ensure that by 2021 all new buildings are ‘nearly zero-energy buildings’. There will also be stricter guidelines on renovation of buildings. 80% of the buildings that exist today will also be available in 2050, but with reduced emission levels.
The greatest potential for increasing energy efficiency resides in the upgrading of existing buildings. The development of products, solutions and operational and management systems are central to achieving greater energy efficiency in the repair, remodeling and refurbishment.
The solution to the high energy use and related emissions on the building sector is to develop buildings that do not contribute with greenhouse gas emissions during their life cycle, zero emission buildings (ZEBs). This can be done by harvesting more renewables energy than is used for construction and operation of buildings and for production of the materials used. The new requirements will result in the need for new and improved materials and technologies that will make it possible to reduce energy consumption and environmental impact of buildings
in a sustainable manner. The focus will be on reducing energy requirements in the operational phase using improved technologies for thermal insulation, glass and window technology, energy efficient ventilation systems, energy efficient systems for heating and cooling, energy efficient electrical equipment, control systems etc. Improved technologies for renewable energy are also important, such as building integrated solar (PV), solar thermal, biomass heating and heat pumps. The material’s and technologies’ environmental footprint must also be reduced where possible, because CO2 emissions from materials used in a building can be greater than the CO2 emissions from the operational phase of a zero emission building. In addition, it is equally important to ensure that individual technologies interact well together, for example, that systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning work well with the building envelope materials and solutions, and that the indoor air quality and resource efficiency are maintained throughout the life cycle of the building.
projects and serial production of smaller buildings) and at a smaller scale (individual projects and renovation projects).
The objective related to building energy efficiency will have to include the development of materials, products and solutions for existing and new buildings, commercial as well as residential. With enough critical mass, a market breakthrough can be effectuated, leading to acceleration in implementing the construction and operation of zero emission buildings. With the rise of ICT, new engineering concepts and models can be developed to design and operate the buildings. Examples here are controls for light, ventilation, heating/cooling, and monitoring of the indoor climate. With the availability of newer, more environmentally friendly and more cost effective materials, it is necessary to update our understanding of the behaviour these materials and the consequences this has for the performance of the built environment.
The solutions must be implemented both at an industrial scale (primarily for large buildings, major renovation
R&D recommendations:
• Develop building materials and envelope solutions, intelligent management and control systems and methods for calculating greenhouse gas emissions.
• Develop new products and solutions for effective renovation of existing buildings.
• Investigate how future buildings need to be constructed so that they are robust to different uses and different users.
• Develop specific concepts for zeroemission buildings (for different building types) and initiate zero emission building pilot projects..
policy recommendations:
• Laboratory infrastructure: Build a Zero Emission Building Laboratory (ZEB Lab) where it is possible to develop, investigate, test and demonstrate new and innovative building technologies.
The smart city is a notion that brings contemporary developments in urban planning, architecture and ‘big data’ together. Effective use of information on building and district performance has the potential to enhance the performance of urban areas significantly. Since a city is more than data, elaborate experiments in so-called ‘Living Labs’ are necessary to see how smart technology and everyday activity go together.
Integrated energy planning in towns and villages is one of the spearheads of the European initiative ‘Smart Cities and Communities’ which was released in 2011. Late 2013 a Strategic Innovation Plan for Smart Cities was launched by the European Commission, helping European cities to find innovative solutions, create value, and share knowledge in order to become smarter cities. smartness in this context implies robust design of buildings, infrastructure, urban planning and mobility linked to smart ICT systems to optimize energy supply at all times. Since the built environment influences landscape, ecology, and human organizational structures, careful long-term decision will need to be made as these will be influencing the environmental performance of cities for years to come.
The total public and private investment needed in Europe over the next 10 years is estimated at approximately €11 billion. By 2020, the Smart Cities initiative should put 25 to 30 European cities at the forefront of the transition to a low carbon future. These cities will be the nuclei from which smart networks, a new generation of buildings and low carbon transport solutions will develop into European wide realities that will transform our energy system.
Research, business, education and government in over
14 countries have been working together to create competences, in an attempt to make life in European cities easier, cheaper and more environmentally friendly. To accelerate innovation in construction and transport, the European platform for construction technology (ECTP - European Construction Technology Platform) authored two central roadmaps with input from the industry and the scientific community. The E2BA (Energy Efficient Buildings Association) coordinated the process of defining the roadmap for energy efficient buildings, and this collaboration managed to mobilize 150 companies from across the value chain, of which 25% were small and medium sized enterprises. The community hopes for even greater impact with the road map for transportation and infrastructure, which includes about 5 million km of roads, 215.000 km railways, and 41.000 km inland waterways in the EU’s 27 member countries (ReFINE –Research for future infrastructure networks in Europe, 2013). Both roadmaps call for larger systems thinking in the industry and offer concrete suggestions for research and development in order to avoid continuing to repeat the mistakes of the 20th century: increasing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing innovation and high building costs were a waste of precious resources. Strikingly, both roadmaps emphasize people, attractiveness and accessibility, health and safety strategies to make both buildings and infrastructure more energy efficient and cost effective in one lifetime. Much attention is also directed towards the renovation of existing buildings
and infrastructure and energy efficiency at all levels - from components to the site level - and better use of ICT solutions, both in engineering and in subsequent management and maintenance. Norway boasts advanced energy monitoring (AMS) and the widespread use of new technologies such as smart phones and mobile services, and is positioned at the top of international surveys of quality of life. Unfortunately, Norway also has a high electricity use in households and buildings in general. Norway is therefore in a unique position to demonstrate how integrated energy planning linked to the use of ICT and robust building technologies can create smarter, environmentally friendly towns, and can possibly be among the first to export new knowledge and technology which may be useful learning for other countries.
Energy conservation and efficiency are the key issues in the global effort to tackle climate change and resource scarcity (EC 2012), and the effect of energy efficiency increases significantly when combined with other resource efficiency measures (EC 2011). One of the main challenges is to get to sufficient interaction between widely different fields such as urban planning, energy management, greenhouse gas accounting, climate change, aesthetics, functionality, socio-economic conditions, health, wellness, comfort, productivity, culture and heritage (Leipzig Charter 2007).
‘Smart cities and villages’ is a research and innovation area that offers a unique domain for interaction in the form of integrated energy design, urban planning, infrastructure, buildings and energy, combined with a high quality of life and high quality of the built environment. The development of smart cities and towns requires a long-term strategy for integrated energy design with clearly defined and measurable goals that ensures robust and accountable system design that can also be adapted to changes in utilization, users, and technologies. Topics that may be designated as priority challenges are measurement and verifiability of quantitative and qualitative data, the development of integrated simulation and modelling tools, and a common European framework for ‘Smart Cities’ projects with indicators and databases that provide a better basis for comparing and learn from each other’s experiences.
Change processes aimed towards integrated urban energy planning require a thorough understanding and analysis of how use, production, transfers and storage of energy occur between buildings, public spaces and networks. In addition, climate change has become of increasing concern for energy systems integrated into the built environment, and such systems should hence be able to provide resistance to extreme weather and small incremental changes in weather conditions. They should also be flexible enough to retain or resume their functionality, accessibility and safety after a disaster has occurred. Most simulation tools emphasize buildings, users or networks, not the interface between them, and experts are educated and trained accordingly. It is therefore difficult to model and optimize synergies for energy efficient buildings that interact with energy
networks, users and the environment in real time, and this hinders the development of integrated, flexible and resilient solutions that can adapt over time (Conte et al 2012, Larsson et al 2011, Salat 2012).
EU and China are preparing major investments in smart cities. Living Labs should cultivate experiences with holistic urban administration driven by ambitious targets and innovative technology, exchange expertise and mutual learning experiences. Planning for the impact of this technology and its integration in the built environment in the coming decades is highly uncertain. Good synergy between design, technology and people will be of particular importance for any long-term successes. This requires a systemic roadmap that provides guidelines, standards and indicators for planning, design, construction, upgrading and operation of smart cities and villages during their entire life cycle within different scales.
Of particular interest to Norway is the linkage of inclusive building processes with ‘smart’ decisions: data, tools, verification, methods of integration of robust design, and smart technologies. The process and project experience from Cities of the Future (Fremtidens Byer), Smart City local and national Centres for Environmentfriendly Energy Research (CEER) should enable Norway to be the front row in both the European context and in the cooperation with China. With the emergence of ICT solutions for energy planning and management, Norway can come to play a new role in the development of comprehensive quality energy.
R&D recommendations:
• Development of optimized energy efficiency and attractive outdoor spaces customised to local climate conditions.
• Development of systems for optimized management of energy demand, production and storage, including ICT for diagnosis, monitoring and visualization.
• Development of solutions for production of decentralized renewable energy integrated in the urban infrastructure.
policy recommendations:
• Development of Key Performance Indicators that enable definition and assessment of added value and cost for Smart Cities.
• Development of a Knowledge Platform with tools, pilot projects, and monitoring of Living Labs.
• Development of solutions for increased energy efficiency through synergies with systems for water and waste.
The main challenge in designing a sustainable energy system lies in that socio-economic benefits of renewable energy are not monetized in the marketplace.
- IEA Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (RETD), 2011
The transition towards a sustainable energy system will obviously not be completed overnight. There will be a transitory phase in which more traditional ways of producing energy will coexist along new, more sustainable methods. This implies the need for a form of ‘flexibility management’ since renewable energy is dependent on natural (and thus fluctuating) resources and the fossil-fuel based production methods will be gradually replaced, while societies need a reliable energy supply.
Over the next 30 years the European energy system will need more flexibility. This is mainly caused by the introduction of increasing amounts of intermittent renewable power generation capacity in wind and solar PV plants, leading to new requirements for capacity markets and reserve markets. Weather conditions like low or high wind generation with duration from a few days to a few weeks also creates the need for energy storage and flexibility. This need for flexibility arises on different time horizons and in different ways. First you have the opportunity to do energy exchange between markets as a consequence of price differences, for example short term energy exchange between spot markets and between balancing markets in different countries. Then you have the possibility to change the energy exchange profile between Norway and the rest of Europe depending on the season.
In addition come possibilities to develop flexibility services, for example by participating in markets for capacities or effect and for system services. In all these cases the flexibility and storage possibilities linked to the gas pipeline system and hydro reservoirs of Norway will be attractive solutions in terms of capacity and cost. This can generate a potentially high income for Norway. The flexibility of hydropower is well known, but the potential to provide the same kind of services in the natural gas systems (fields, storages and pipelines) is potentially equally high but more unexplored.
Norwegian hydro power reservoirs and Pumped Storage Hydropower (PSH) can provide flexibility based on storage over the relevant time horizons. It will be necessary to build new PSH or to increase capacity in existing plants to provide the flexibility needed to handle weeks of low wind, but there is no need to build new reservoirs in order to offer this flexibility.
Natural gas also can be used for balancing the varying production from intermittent renewable energy sources. The natural gas value chain may offer flexibility from several sources, such as: flexible production fields with large reservoirs, conventional storages (for example abandoned reservoirs, aquifiers and salt caverns), LNGstorages and utilisation of the inventory in gas pipelines. Such sources may offer valuable flexibility.
Norway should take an active stance in identifying viable pathways for further development in Europe. In our opinion an increased focus on providing flexibility services and energy exchange from the Norwegian export system will be a way of securing hydropower and natural gas an important role in the European energy system. We recommend starting exploring business models for such flexibility services.
If Norway wants to take a role as a provider of flexibility, investments in HVDC cables to Europe are needed. The capacity needed is highly dependent on EU policy,
Tuning in with a new paradigm
market access and the planned use of the cables for exchange and services. The main risk comes from political uncertainty regarding climate policy and the instruments used to create an environmentally friendly energy system. Capacity and effect markets will be established and it is of high importance to prevent that poor design makes them a barrier to the progress of cross-border market integration and competition. This is a major governance challenge that must be addressed actively by Norwegian stakeholders concerned with the provision of flexible energy services to Europe.
It is doubtful if investments in cables of the size needed to handle the future demand for flexibility will happen on the Norwegian side under today’s policy
uncertainty. We recommend to enter into EU-wide or bilateral agreements that reduce this risk by addressing the division of costs, revenues and risk between the participants in the relevant value-chains and between the relevant countries.
The Norwegian natural gas pipelines are highly utilised and will be so the coming decade, providing a cost efficient energy supply network to Europe. Utilisation of the storage capacity in the pipelines may offer additional value in the future, provided a market for such services is developed. We recommend that the tradeoffs between increased costs and the potential value provided by these by such storage services is further investigated, and that relevant business models should be explored.
Major changes towards a more sustainable society are not only played out through engineering, but also through the political domain. Furthermore, societies are made up of members that have a democratic right to vote and thus to influence decision-making. These processes have a dynamic of their own, and careful political action is needed to implement necessary measures in a democratic manner.
Humanity has the capacity, ingenuity, technologies and resources to create a better world. However, the lack of appropriate institutions, coordination mandates, political will and governance structures make the task difficult.
Global Energy Assessment: Summary for Policymakers, 2012, s. 8
A well-functioning energy system shall meet at least four quality requirements Firstly, it should provide universal access to energy that can ensure the generally accepted minimum quality of life. Secondly, it must be (ecologically) sustainable as defined by the Brundtland Commission’s – i.e safeguarding the present generations needs without compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs. Thirdly, the energy system shall ensure secure access for consumers, a safe working environment for everyone who works with manufacturing and distribution, and protection against harmful side effects for the environment. Fourth, the system shall be cost effective, i.e realizing the three other requirements at the lowest possible cost.
The above quote from Global Energy Assessment should remind us that our ability to accomplish these objectives depends not only on technology and economics, but also to a high degree of political institutions and processes. Many solutions and projects that satisfy one or more of the above criteria, may simply not be possible to
legislate or implement. Media and public debate often explain this disparity with reference to a lack of political will. It is a grossly oversimplified diagnosis.
A research- based approach will take the position that the political opportunity space is formed through interaction between three main factors. One is the parties’ preferences and perceptions. The second is the distribution of power and influence between parties (more precise: the distribution of power over the configuration of preferences). The third is the institutional framework (‘rules of the game’; organizational structure and associated resources). Most of us have multiple roles, and the preferences that we express through professional practice or consumption do not always point in the same direction as those we express as citizens in society (through elections and discussions). Power is unevenly distributed in all known communities. In order to identify the scope for change, it is particularly important to identify ‘veto players’ and ‘winning coalitions’ Veto players can block change, winning coalitions can drive changes through. Restructuring is difficult where there are many veto players that have mutually different preferences. The number of veto players increases the more support the rules required in order to make valid decisions increases. In complex systems, coalitions of constructive “pushers” may prevail, often through starting out by adapting measures that the coalition members can achieve through cooperation. When these “pushers”
succeed , we often see that others follow.
Political feasibility is of course not a requirement in line with universal access, energy security, and sustainability. The fact that a measure is possible , does not necessarily make it desirable. In working for change to sustainable energy systems knowledge of the regulatory framework and the mechanisms that shape the political opportunity space is imperative to judge success. In this support function, Norwegian research communities have a lot to offer.
Institutional tools such as taxes can be an effective incentive to choose a more sustainable alternative in for example transport or housing. It makes sure that those who use the largest amount of energy and emit the highest amount of CO 2 pay a fair price for their choices. However, the question emerges if measures like these are enough to function as incentive.
Emissions of greenhouse gases have increased in Norway According to the Kyoto agreement, average annual emissions in Norway for the period 2008-2012 should not exceed the 1990 emission level by more than one percent. Emissions statistics from Statistics Norway and the Norwegian Environment Agency indicate that for the period 2008-2012, average emissions were about 6% higher than in 1990.
For the petroleum sector and road transport, CO2 emissions were 75% and 30% higher than in 1990, respectively. Norway met its Kyoto requirements through extensive purchase of emissions allowances. If, however, Norway in the future aims at reaching parts of its international greenhouse gas obligations through domestic abatement, the policy instruments aimed at mitigating domestic emissions must be radically sharpen.
The Norwegian Parliament has passed a regulation banning oil-based heating from 2020. If effective, most emissions from stationary combustion, which amount to almost 20% of the Norwegian CO2 emissions, will be removed. In order to reduce emissions from the remaining stationary sources, that is, primarily manufacturing and extraction of petroleum, other policy instruments need to be implemented.
According to economic theory, a cost-effective emissions reduction can be implemented by imposing the same price on emissions for all sources, either as a tax or as a price of tradable emissions permits. This policy rule reflects that all sources – measured per unit of greenhouse gas emission – cause the same damage, and therefore should be treated equally. By putting a price on emissions, firms and households are encouraged to identify climate-friendly solutions: Firms can save money by switching to more climate-friendly ways of production and households may experience that climate-friendly solutions are cheaper and more attractive than the standard alternatives. Using available information and creativity, agents can choose which abatement efforts to undertake. A nice example is Statoil: According to the company’s web site, early in the 1990s an emission tax on extraction of petroleum spurred Statoil to remove CO2 from extracted natural gas by injecting the gas in deep geological formations below the Sleipner platform.
reduce mobile emissions
By imposing a price on CO2, producers and consumers have an economic incentive to choose more climatefriendly technologies. Demand for this type of technology will then increase, making R&D in climatefriendly technologies more profitable. But is pricing CO2
emissions sufficient to spur innovation and diffusion of climate-friendly technologies, for example, in the transport sector?
At present there are two main technologies for climatefriendly road transport; electrical cars and hydrogenbased cars. Transition to each of these technologies requires expansion of load stations. In an early phase when there is few clients willing to acquire a new type of car, there may be limited supply of load stations without government interventions. This is similar to the history of the telephone and email; the first persons using these technologies obtained limited benefit, but as more people started using them the benefit increased for everybody (positive network externalities). Transition
to electrical cars or hydrogen-based cars as the main transport technology may therefore require that the government offers either a subsidy to purchase the vehicle or finance investment in infrastructure.
Expansion of infrastructure may be expensive, which suggests that either extensive development of infrastructure should be undertaken infrequently or society should choose technologies that do not need extensive investment in infrastructure. It may be beneficial to investigate a number of alternative technologies, but to implement only very few of them. In addition, it will not be efficient if Norway invests in infrastructure of another road-traffic technology than the other European countries; it may be wise to coordinate the choice of road-traffic technologies.
In the national arena Norwegian interests are in focus. Knowledge to support policy decisions and ensure value creation based on our natural resources, and technology development to strengthen our industry’s competitiveness is the main issues. The national effort within the selected strategic areas must cover the value chain from basic, to applied research and demonstrators. The size and quality of the effort must at a level that builds international competitive and attractive research teams.
The European arena is our home market for research. To realize the value of Norwegian energy resources we have to develop European solutions together with actors from our neighboring nations. We have to be attractive partners to European research institutions and industry. We are fully integrated in Europe’s SET Plan effort to rebuild its energy supply system to become sustainable, and should naturally take a lead in several areas based on our strength in renewable energy, renewable energy industry and renewable energy research.
On the global arena technology does not recognize borders. Energy technology industries are truly operating and competing on a global market. This means that energy technology research in any country must be at an international top level to be competitive, requirements that also apply for Norwegian renewable energy R&D. Small nations like Norway cannot cover all nations and all topics at this level of ambition, and should carefully seek strategic alliances to develop the best technology. We should also take part in lifting the level of wealth in the less developed countries in the world through assisting them in developing their own renewable resources and technology, a cornerstone in growing wealth.
The following recommendations are given within this framework. This does not mean that Norwegian renewable energy R&D only applies to Norway. Its main purpose nationally is to build a solid and sufficient knowledge base to serve its government and industry in acting nationally, in Europe and globally. In times where change and rebuilding is needed, research is a key element to succeed.
Towards an innovative knowledge economy
Over the past few years, Norwegian investments in sustainable energy research and education have built a strong technological, economic and social science expertise in the field of renewable energy. This expertise should be further utilized as a foundation for energy-related policy decisions.
Recommendation:
• Establish a cross-disciplinary ‘Energy Competence Council’ In Norway inspired by the model for Germany’s ‘Energiwende‘ working operationally with the Government and ministries.
Long term Norwegian targets for research, development and education in renewable energy
Norway is an energy nation. Continued focus on developing these resources and the industry that make use of them are essential for securing our future wealth. Continued maintenance and develop of competence and expertise is at the core of this effort. A long-term education, research and demonstration policy is crucial.
Recommendations:
• Establish clear policies for Norway’s role as a lead nation in building a low emission energy supply system to prevent global heating.
• Continue the strategic R&D commitment initiated by the Climate settlement with substantial thematic research programs like EnergiX and Climit, and the FME centers to ensure a solid national base for policy decisions, industrial innovation and make our research institutions attractive partners internationally.
Today’s innovation- and industrial development in the renewable energy sector does not live up to our high national aspirations. A key to realizing our ambition is to strengthen the weakest parts of the innovation chain.
Recommendations:
• Strengthen the ‘Researcher project-Blue Sky’ RCN funding scheme to cultivate the most innovative ideas.
• Expand the ‘Forny’ RCN project scheme to close the gap between research and demonstration.
• Establish large-scale demonstration projects in key national priority areas.
Developing a strong European profile
EU - Norway's 'home market’ within Research, Development and Training in Renewable Energy
Harvesting the potential values from our energy resources and related industry development is impossible without European collaboration on a broad basis, from R&D to policy development. Research is often the starting point of these processes and forces an increasingly stronger connection to the European research cooperation, and specifically the SET Plan.
• Develop and maintain a sustainable funding model that enable Norwegian research institutions to actively pursue leading and performing roles along the whole specter of the European R&D arena, in practice strengthening the MVO and STIM-EU instruments.
• Work together with European countries with common interest to establish Berlin model (‘EU FME’) R&D and Demo programs within Norwegian priority areas, and develop funding mechanisms for this kind of instrument.
To contribute to Europe’s 2020 goals, Norwegian companies, research institutions and governing bodies work will need to work actively and closely with European partners. On the European scene we find the same type of actors involved. Our industry have a best chance of success when the Norwegian triangle is coordinated and in “parallel” interaction with similar actors in other nations or at the European level.
Recommendation:
• Develop processes for targeted joint efforts by the knowledge institutions, government and industry to establish our industry in the middle of the renewable energy innovation market in Europe.
policy SET SG EERA JPsTo create a competent, high profile and internationally visible Norwegian research and education environment in renewable energy, we need to work with the very best. We need tools that facilitate active research collaboration with the exchange of people and resources (in strategically important areas). This type of cooperation is not given enough credit in today’s evaluation scheme and needs to be given special consideration to give the predictability and trust needed for international collaboration.
• Portfolio considerations in the annual RCN calls (in e.g. the EnergiX program) to ensure funding for truly collaborative projects and researcher exchange.
• Initiate ‘joint calls’ with selected countries (Japan, U.S., China) on selected topics of common interest.
To reduce GHG emissions, deploying renewable energy in developing countries is essential. Norwegian research communities have great energy expertise on both technology and deployment that we should take advantage of, also in Norwegian aid- and development programs. There are endless opportunities to contribute to the Government’s ‘Energy for All’ initiative.
Recommendation:
• Start a strategy process examining how applied research can be used as a tool for development for self development, combining lessons learned from the Norwegian R&D and Innovation schemes with the development agencies own experience. The Norwegian Research Council, Norad, the universities and research institutions together with the industry are obvious participants in such a process.
[1] IPCC Climate Change 2013 - WG 1 Contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report
[2] IEA World Energy Outlook 2012
[1] GWEC Global Wind Statistics 2012
[2] IEA Energy Technology Perspectives 2012
[3] EWEA (2013) Deep Water. The next step for offshore wind energy.
[4] NVE (2010) Offshore wind power in Norway.
Proposed areas for strategic environmental assessment
[5] NVE Rapport Nr 9/2009: Vindkart for Norge
[6] Enova (2007) Potensialstudie av havenergi i Norge
[7] TPWind Strategic Research Agenda (draft, published March 2014)
[8] INTPOW Offshore Wind Norway Market and Supply Chain, 2012
[9] NVE (2012) Havvind – Strategisk konsekvensutredning
[1] Petter H. Heyerdahl, UMB
[2] www.ssb.no/emner/10/10/10/petroleumsalg/arkiv/tab-2011-03-16-01.htm
> Conte, E, Monno, V, 2012, Beyond the buildingcentric approach: A vision for an integrated evaluation of sustainable buildings, Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 34, pp.31-40.
> EC, 2011, A resource-efficient Europe – Flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 Strategy. COM(2011)21 Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. <http://ec.europa.eu/resource-efficient-europe/pdf/ resource_efficient_europe_en.pdf>
> EC, 2012, Smart Cities and Communities website, hosted by the European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/ energy/technology/initiatives/smart_cities_en.htm (last accessed 29 April 2012).
> ECTP, 2013a, Towards the creation of a high-tech building industry. Turning energy efficiency into sustainable business. Research & Innovation Roadmap 2014-2020. An initiative of the European Construction Technology Platform ECTP. http://www.ectp.org/cws/params/ectp/download_files/36D2534v2_E2B_Roadmap_draft.pdf
> ECTP, 2013b, The ReFINE roadmap. Building up infrastructure networks in a sustainable Europe. An initiative of the European Construction Technology Platform ECTP. http://www.ectp.org/cws/params/ectp/ download_files/39D2500v1_reFINE_Roadmap_Draft_P.pdf
> Larsson, N, Hovorka, F, Salat, S, Bourdic, L, 2011, From Smart Grids to Synergy Grids, Proceedings of the SB11
Helsinki World Sustainable Building Conference, Volume 1, pp.46-47.
> LEIPZIG CHARTER on Sustainable European Cities (2007) Adopted by the European Council of Ministers on 24
> May 2007. http://www.eukn.org/E_library/Urban_Policy/Leipzig_Charter_on_Sustainable_European_Cities
> Salat, S, 2012, Cities and forms: on sustainable urbanism, Editions Hermann.
This report has been compiled in the period 2013-2014 as part of the activities of the SFFE (Senter For Fornybar Energi/Centre For Renewable Energy) in Norway. The texts have been delivered, checked and screened by their respective contributors. Editing and concept by Gabriella Tranell and Otto Paans.
The photographs in this report have been purchased via Shutterstock, with exception the pictures used on pages 10-11, 24, and 80-81, which have been supplied by TiC,
The cover image has been is a ISS Expedition 34 Crew Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center derivative work. The serial number of this photograph is ISS034E016601. Obtained via: [http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth#mediaviewer/File: ISS034E016601_-_Stratocumulus_Clouds_-_Pacific_Ocean. jpg]. This picture is available for the public domain.
Graphic design by TiC - Thinking in Concepts (2013-2014), any copyright on individual graphics belongs to TiC.
