OPINION: "There can be no national security without energy security"

There can be no national security without energy security.

Energy security comes from energy sufficiency - not necessary self sufficiency, but sufficiency through a mix of own production and generation, and supply from trusted partner nations. In an ideal world, energy abundance over energy sufficiency.

The big dilemma plaguing Europe - amidst Russian aggression and malign actors such as China, Iran and North Korea - is how to achieve energy security. Is it by fast-tracking renewables or furthering fossil fuel usage for economic growth, but prolonging the chains fossil fuels and dependency from non-desirable nations.

The answer is all the above, but with the ongoing wind down of fossil fuels.

• Fossil fuels are a cheap source of energy - for both power generation and transportation; affordability remains a must in a world where the high cost of living is causing society to challenge the the foundations of democracy.
• Self generation through renewables must ramp up to allow the West to wean off fossil fuels over time.  Green fuels must also be part of the solution for harder to abate sectors.

But renewables ramp up is not simply installing more wind turbines and solar panels. The entire electricity infrastructure needs to be upgraded including mass roll out of battery storage and grid augmentation to deal with renewable intermittency, and the added challenge of increasing electricity demand from the roll-out of AI and general electrification of the economy.

The simultaneous ramp-down of fossil fuels and ramp-up up renewables is the path forward. The electrification of the economy - particularly the adoption of EVs - is gradual, and the ramp provides the time needed to transition. Renewables build-out, battery storage roll-out and grid augmentation takes time and cannot be delivered over night.

The ramp will also allow the required investment to be phased. The energy transition is expensive and it needs to be paid for. But too much financial pain for the public will not be tolerated.

A clear plan is what is now required, to allow regulation to be designed and finalised, providing investors with certainty on proceeding with the necessary projects to deliver the energy transition. 

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Equinor: all three UK low-carbon projects receive government funding to mature concepts

All three of Equinor’s projects to deliver deep cuts in emissions from industries and support clean growth on the UK’s east coast have received public funding from UK authorities. With a combination of private and public funding, Equinor and its partners will now progress these projects in order to create the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040.

On 17 March 2021 the UK Government announced the funding awards under the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF) to three project consortia in which Equinor is directly involved:

• Zero Carbon Humber (ZCH), a twelve-company partnership to turn the UK’s largest industrial cluster net zero through the step-wise deployment of low carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and negative emissions being delivered at sites across the Humber estuary. The first project is the Equinor-led H2H Saltend low carbon hydrogen facility and a hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline network across Humber industrial sites developed by National Grid Ventures.
• Net Zero Teesside (NZT), a five-company partnership to decarbonise the Teesside industrial cluster with carbon capture and build a new gas-fired power station with state-of-the art carbon capture technology.
• Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a six-company partnership (with ENI, National Grid, Shell, Total and operator bp) to develop offshore carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure in the UK North Sea that will serve both ZCH and NZT.

The three successful bids amount to GBP 229 million in private and public funding, with Equinor and its partners contributing more than two-thirds of the total.

“The shared challenge of climate change requires governments, industries and societies to come together. This funding award from the UK authorities shows this working in practice and we are delighted that these three pioneering projects have been successful. Working with our partners and stakeholders, Equinor will continue to apply our capabilities to deliver these projects, so together we can demonstrate the significant value that carbon capture & storage and hydrogen offer to communities and countries in a net zero future,” says Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president for Marketing, Midstream & Processing in Equinor.

The funding awards from UK Research & Innovation and the funding from Equinor and its partners will be used in each project to move through the detailed engineering and design stages and progress to the point where, subject to the development in parallel of supportive UK policy, a final investment decision (FID) on each can be taken.

“The awards are great news for the UK and for Equinor. The Humber and Teesside make up nearly half of the UK’s industrial emissions so, to reach net zero, there is enormous value in tackling emissions at both clusters together. Rolling out carbon capture use & storage and hydrogen across the UK’s industrial clusters supports the Government’s aims for a green recovery and to level up by safeguarding and creating many high-skilled jobs, and will establish the UK as a world leader in hydrogen and low carbon technologies. As the UK’s leading energy provider, we will continue to work with our partners to progress our projects to final investment decision, engaging locally and nationally to make this happen,” says Grete Tveit, senior vice president for Low Carbon Solutions in Equinor.

In Norway, Equinor and its partners started construction work in January 2021 on Northern Lights, Europe’s first full-scale carbon transportation & storage project, following the Norwegian Parliament’s vote to approve funding in December. Construction is expected to be completed by late 2023 with the first phase operational during 2024.

Original article link: https://www.equinor.com/en/news/20210317-low-carbon-hat-trick-uk.html

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