Feature articles — Nordic Energy Solutions

Solar power at the Arctic Circle

Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish researchers are cooperating to prove that solar power in the North is not only possible, but also profitable.

Nordic Built in North America

The Nordic pavilion at Greenbuild 2011 in Toronto was a popular attraction for conference participants, showcasing a number of solutions that demonstrate the region's leading edge within green buildings and sustainable construction.

Pumped storage: Releasing the pressure on isolated electricity grids

The Faroe Islands will use wind power to pump water back up into hydroelectric dams as a means to balance their electricity grid.

Sustainable biofuels from the sea

Seaweed Energy Solutions is one of the first companies to cultivate large-scale seaweed for biofuel production. They offer an integrated solution, from the development of better seaweed strands to technologies for anchoring and harvesting the seaweed.

Denmark to store energy in underground balloons

How do you balance the fluctuating supply of wind power in a country with no hydroelectric dams? With a giant water balloon, of course, covered with dirt.

The world's longest undersea electric cable

Norwegian Statnett and British National Grid are planning a 1.400 MW sea cable between Norway and the UK. At 800 km, it will be significantly longer than the current record holder, the 580 km cable between Norway and the Netherlands.

The new wave

Vigor Wave Energy has developed a new concept to convert wave energy into electricity.

Wind, Waves and Watts

After two years of testing in Denmark, the combined wave and wind platform is ready for US waters.

Iceland produces energy from volcanoes

Scientists in Iceland have found a way to produce electricity from magma in volcanoes. Now they want to export that electricity to Europe.

Let there be Light (Emitting Diodes)!

Winners of the 2011 Nordic Cleantech Open, Ecospark, are developing a new generation of Light Emitting Diodes (LED). Their highly efficient lighting solution uses nanotechnology to emulate the warm colour of sunlight.

Balancing Bornholm

The Danish island of Bornholm finds the key to efficient electricity markets (hint: it's you and me).

From trash to gas: Waste gasification trumps incineration in Finland

An ultramodern facility in the city of Lahti maximises the energy recovered from municipal solid waste.

Electric car sharing – the way to sustainable personal mobility

Move About combines electrical cars with car sharing to provide environmental, energy efficient and flexible mobility for their customers

Body Heat Heating Building in Stockholm

The body heat from Stockholm central station’s 250 000 daily commuters now warms the office block next door, slashing heating costs by 25%.

PV + EV: Charging cars with the sun

The municipality of Espoo, Finland, is looking to be completely ready for a large-scale roll-out of electric vehicles (EV). Amongst its various initiatives is a charging station powered by photovoltaic panels (PV).

Swedens bio region

The Swedish county of Jönköping aims at energy self-sufficiency by 2050.

The under water kite

Swedish company Minesto has found way of producing tidal power at a reasonable price and without the need for large infrastructure.

Nordic Solutions - Stateside

Nordic solutions for sustainable buildings were a hit at GreenBuild 2010, the most important arena for the green building sector in North America.

Power storage

Denmark is world leading in wind power. A clean energy resource, but on days with low electricity consumption a lot of clean energy goes to waste. How can this energy be stored?

More Energy Efficient Data Centers

The cool Nordic climate give the Nordic data centers a head start on energy efficiency, as half of the energy used in traditional data centers traditionally is used to cool the centre down. In addition, the cool climate means that there is good use for the excess heat that is generated.

Towards greener transportation

How should we power our modes of transportation in the future? A Nordic research project aims to find this out.

Solar power from nanotechnology

Norwegian EnSol AS has patented a new kind of photovaltic solar cells. It seems that in the future, anything could harness power from the sun.

The future is looking green

Project Zero is an ambitious plan to make a region in southern Denmark completely carbon neutral by 2029.

Zoological transport

Fuelling your vehicles with fossil fuel is not a logical choice when you are running a zoological garden. That is why the Zoo in Aalborg chose the fuel cell powered EcoTruck instead.

The energy from beneath

The global potential for geothermal energy is enormous. In the United States alone there is enough energy for the next 30 000 years. On Iceland access to all this free energy is bringing the country one step closer towards energy independence every day.

Good wood

Wood has a long tradition as a building material in Finland. Using more wood can be an effective way of reducing emissions from the building and construction sector.

Energy from the fjord

Norway is the land of the fjords. For a century the Norwegians have harnessed energy from the water cascading down from the mountains and into the deep, cold fjords. Now, however, they are using the stable temperatures of the fjord to heat and cool public buildings.

Sufficient and sustainable

The Danish municipality Ringkøbing – Skjern aims at 100 % energy sufficiency by 2020.

Not just greener, but smarter too

Many things have changed over the past hundred years. Today our homes are filled with appliances and gadgets such as plasma screen tv-sets, computers, and mobile phones. Though high-tech, they still rely on good old fashioned electricity to make them tick.

Provincial heating

Sweden is one of the world leaders in district heating. Yet, there are rural areas in Sweden that are too scarcely populated to see any major developments. In these areas thinking small is a great idea.

Cleaner clouds from Iceland

Datacenters are energy-intensive facilities that account for a considerable amount of the global CO2 emissions. Why should you care? Because the datacenters are what keep the internet alive. And because the internet is here to stay we should find a cleaner way of powering it.

Denmark: Pioneers in wind energy

Denmark’s countryside is riddled with windmills generating electricity for farmers and communities. The quiet rotating blades have become almost like a national symbol to Denmark. And with good reason.

Nordic innovations in Silicon Valley

“Nordic Green II is a gateway for Nordic companies looking for opportunity in the US and a place where US innovators can learn about how to get involved with the latest innovations coming out of this world leading region” says Alex Portilla from the Innovation Center Denmark in Silicon Valley.

General Electric invest in the Nordic region

To develop Europe's vast offshore wind resources American energy giant General Electrics looks to the north.

American Wind, Nordic Expertise

USA is a world leader in wind power with a total installed capacity of over 35000 MW. Nordic expertise is currently involved in a number of wind projects in the U.S.

Cleaner Capitals

As cities across the world grow larger, air pollution from cars has become a growing concern. The Nordic capitals have taken some steps to clear the air.

Good neighbors

Share the heat. Dairy production generate a lot of heat. Why not sell it to the greenhouse next door?

Pig City

Construction on a combined green house and pig farm is expected to begin in Denmark in 2010.

Danes and Chinese work together on wind energy

The Danish-Chinese Wind Energy Development Programme (WED) is a bilateral development programme with its overall objective to help China improve its technological and management capacity in wind power development.

Heating Husavik

Husavik – a small urban community on the north coast of Iceland, 40 km from the Arctic Circle – is a model of how energy efficiency can be integrated to a unified whole.

Denmark’s first carbon neutral building

The Green Lighthouse is a new facility at the University of Copenhagen. It is carbon neutral, utilizes solar panels, district heating, natural lighting and ventilation. And it shows us that energy efficient buildings are not a thing of the future.

Working together for cleaner cars

Valmet Automotive knows something about making cars, while Ensto and Fortum know quite a bit about electricity. A good reason to team up and develop solutions for electric cars.

District heating goes digital

Servers and computers generate a lot of heat. Two Finnish companies have found a clever way of cooling them down. The benefits turned out to be.. binary.

Massive yet passive

With huge variations in climate from arctic coastal areas in the North, to more temperate areas in the south, building passive houses in the Nordic region can be a challenge. Still, passive houses are popping up all across the region.

Joint Nordic research on energy and climate

The Top-level Research Initiative (TRI) focuses on climate, environment and energy solutions and is the largest joint Nordic research and innovation initiative to date. Cooperation between the best scientists and institutions in the Nordic countries will contribute towards solving the global climate crisis.

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