Anyone in Scotland looking at Norway’s achievements in the energy technology sector couldn’t help but wonder how another small country of around 5.5 million people has managed to create so many high value, high skill companies.
This is not just in oil and gas, but increasingly in the renewables sector as well, whereas Scotland hasn’t.
We can certainly see that from a strategic standpoint, the Norwegian government’s decision in the 1970s to create Statoil – now Equinor – has turned out to be a roaring success.
Not only has the decision helped to make Norway one of the wealthiest small countries on the planet with a sovereign wealth fund, now worth in excess of $1.6 trillion, but it has also acted globally both as a champion and a driver for Norwegian industry and innovation.
Its very existence acted as a catalyst and provided the inspiration and political incentive to Norwegian businesses, entrepreneurs and its financial sector to put the necessary effort in to create their highly successful supply chains and, as the imperative of dealing with climate change came along, to develop and grow those new industries in which Norway is arguably already a major global player.
Equinor built the first floating wind farm – ironically off Scotland’s coast – and developed one of the first carbon capture and sequestration projects on the Sleipner field.
Recently it even acquired Rolls Royce’s intellectual property on direct air capture technology to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, which they intend to commercialise.
These are just a few examples of its achievements – there are many more.
The Norwegian government created an almost perfect set of conditions under which its brightest and best could thrive.
Industry supported them and critically, so did its financial sector. Everyone wanted to make it work and it has.
As the emphasis shifted to energy transition, this led to the emergence of companies like NEL Hydrogen Pro and Hystar – which are all hydrogen electrolyser manufacturers – Hexagon Purus, which is a major supplier to the automotive industry of high-pressure composite material hydrogen tanks, and Umoe Composites and Provaris – who are also building hydrogen storage units.
Teco2030 manufactures fuel cells and fuel cell drive trains for marine applications.
Corvus and Alma Clean Power and Clara Venture Labs are all developers and manufacturers of fuel cells for various applications and, amongst other things, Otecho A/S in the very pretty town of Tvedestrand in Southern Norway manufactures hydrogen compressors.
NorSun manufactures mono-crystalline silicon ingots and wafers for the global solar energy industry, REC is a solar panel manufacturer, and Bergen Carbon Solutions turns carbon atoms from carbon dioxide into useful products such as graphite and carbon nanotubes.
Hellinor Energy, which is based in Floro North of Bergen, builds a hydrogen fuel cell “Powerbox” for which they’re developing a “cracker” so they can feed it with ammonia.
Bergen Engines A/S is building a 100% hydrogen fuelled internal combustion engine for marine applications.
A new hydrogen fuelled small ferry has just been commissioned and the Norwegian transport company Torghatten Nord has a pair of larger hydrogen-powered passenger ferries on order.
The Royal Norwegian Navy is developing the use of hydrogen for electricity production in their new submarines.
These maritime hydrogen projects have also sparked a flurry of port-based hydrogen production hubs.
Other projects include building coastal freighters using ammonia as the hydrogen fuel carrier.
There’s a project to build a cruise ship using similar technology.
In a project supported by Equinor with funding from the EU, the platform supply vessel Viking Energy is also being fitted with an ammonia fuel system which will directly feed 2MW of solid oxide fuel cells.
This is designed to enable “long-range…high power” sailing of up to 3,000 hours per year.
According to the Norwegian Hydrogen Forum there are now a total of 212 hydrogen projects underway in Norway, 75 in production, 52 application related, 90 R&D projects and 41 technology manufacturing.
I’ve only mentioned a fraction of them.
Norway also has a “toehold” in the emerging SAF (sustainable aviation fuels) sector. Norsk e-Fuel A/S will begin supplying fuel to the aviation industry around 2026 and has plans to build two additional plants by 2030.
It is of course getting the liquid carbon dioxide it needs for the process from another Norwegian company, Carbon Centric A/S, which owns and operates carbon capture plants for small and medium-sized waste and biomass incineration plants.
Then of course there’s offshore wind and the Norwegian “Windcatcher” design, comprising a “floating wall” of small turbines producing 40MW of power, has won certification from global classification agency DNV.
So, we’ll be seeing that being tested soon.
Aker Solutions is developing a new concept called the Subsea Collector, which connects multiple wind turbines in a star configuration rather than the traditional daisy chain pattern.
Its aim is to reduce the costs of offshore transmission infrastructure by up to 10 per cent.
On top of all this and much, much more, Norway also has major companies like Kongsberg who provide marine electrical and electronics technology – including their renowned dynamic positioning technology to shipbuilders globally – so their involvement in the offshore wind sector is guaranteed.
Norway is positively buzzing and it’s imperative Scotland now accepts just how far it’s lagging behind.
Aberdeen in particular needs to look at Norway’s record of achievement and try to understand that projects such as building the Energy Transition Zone and continuing to fund organisations like the Net Zero Technology Centre, plus lobbying to be the home of GB Energy when it’s clearly no Equinor, will not actually help us emulate Norway’s success.
We urgently need some fresh thinking. We’re rapidly running out of time. The Norwegians are already eating our “lunsj”.
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