Norway

Highlights in 2018
Highlights in 2018

 

Update on clean energy innovation policies and strategies

In June 2018, right after MI-3, Norway launched an updated national strategy for research, development, demonstration and commercialisation of new climate-friendly energy technology. The strategy – called ENERGI21 – is designed to promote coordinated, efficient and targeted efforts in research and technology for the energy sector. The development of the strategy has been led by the energy industry itself and six key priorities have been identified:

  • Digitalised and integrated energy systems
  • Climate-friendly energy technologies for maritime transport
  • Solar power for an international market
  • Offshore wind power for an international market
  • Hydropower as the backbone of the Norwegian energy supply
  • Climate-friendly and energy-efficient industry, including Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

The strategy provides the authorities and the business sector with recommendations on how to target activities relating to new technologies for the energy sector.


Major innovation initiatives in 2018/19

PILOT-E: Fast-track from idea to market

PILOT-E is a collaboration between different Norwegian energy research, development and demonstration support schemes and it works as a “fast-track” through the stages of research; from idea to market. PILOT-E has been highlighted at earlier Ministerials and has been very successful so far. Three calls have been completed and a fourth is currently in progress. The maritime sector has been a priority in two of the calls so far. By 2022, around 70 new electric ferries will be operating on the Norwegian fjords. There are also projects for hydrogen ferries underway. This is being made possible by public funding to develop the required technology and the roll – out of necessary infrastructure. Today, as a rule, all new public tenders for car ferries require zero or low emission technology.

The fourth PILOT-E call was published in late March 2019 and will focus on two specific areas:

  • Complete hydrogen supply chains
  • Emission-free construction

The Norwegian CCS demonstration project

Norway is currently developing a full-chain demonstration project. This includes capture, transport and storage solutions. Norcem and Fortum Oslo Varme is currently studying CO2-capture at their respective plants (a cement plant and a waste incineration facility) At the same time, Equinor, Shell and Total are working on a solution for transport and storage. The plan is to transport CO2 from the industrial sites and store it offshore. The storage facilities will have excess capacity – much more than what is needed for domestic needs – and the transport solution will be flexible. Thus, Norway is preparing the ground for future European projects, making it more attractive for European industry to consider CO2-capture.


Major activities in support of the Innovation Challenges in 2018/19

Norway participates actively in ACT. ACT means Accelerating CCS Technologies, and the ambition of the 13 partners is to fund research and innovation projects that can lead to safe and cost-effective technology. This is a multilateral initiative involving different MI members. ACT published the first call for project proposals in June 2016. Eight new projects were started in the autumn of 2017 with €41.2 million in financial support from ACT. A second ACT call was published 4th June 2018. The budget for the call is up to €30 million and full project proposals were submitted on 1st March 2019. Another call is planned for 2020.

Norway will also host a workshop for IC3, the MI Carbon Capture Challenge in Trondheim in June 2019. This will follow up the first workshop that was held in Houston in 2017 and the subsequent report completed in 2018. It is important to ensure continued progress in the direction of full-scale implementation and commercialization of CO2 capture, utilisation and storage technologies. A workshop is, therefore, held back-to-back with the Trondheim CCS-10 Conference where 400-500 CCS experts are gathered. Representatives from all MI members are invited.


New collaborations

The MoST – RCN Joint Funding Call on Consortium Collaboration on Energy
Norway, China
Call for bilateral R&D-projects on: wind power, electrical vehicles, energy efficiency.
Sectors: public-private
Type of collaboration: research and development
Duration: 2020 to 2023
Funding amount: 
75 million kroner (NOK) from each country