After spending $120 million on a stake in an online grocer in Norway, SoftBank Group Corp. is laying out the business logic of targeting a market that boasts Europe’s highest hourly labor costs. The deal is an example of how countries that pay average workers really well often come up with some of the smartest […]
Norway sovereign wealth fund buys first renewable energy stake
The fund, which has more than 1.1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) in assets, said it will buy a 50 percent stake in what is currently the world’s second-largest offshore wind farm. Oslo: Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which is financed from taxes paid by the nation’s oil and gas industry, said Wednesday it had made its […]
Morrow Batteries Is Taking Its First Steps to Norwegian Gigafactory
Morrow Batteries is starting development of a large-scale factory in Norway, where it will benefit from some of the lowest electricity prices in the world. The Nordic region, with its abundance of cheap and clean hydro power, could emerge as a European hub for the key technologies needed to electrify everything from transport to heavy […]
Australia won’t subsidise electric vehicles
The approach is in stark contrast with Norway, which has promoted clean cars through tax breaks, resulting in battery EVs making up 54 per cent of new cars sold in 2020, a global record. MELBOURNE: Australia expects one in four cars sold will be electric vehicles by 2030, but the government said on Friday it […]
Norway Wealth Fund Dumps Oil Stocks Amid $10 Billion Loss
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has sold its entire portfolio of companies focused on oil exploration and production, marking a major step away from fossil fuels for the investing giant. The portfolio, worth about $6 billion in 2019, was fully exited by the end of last year, Trond Grande, the fund’s deputy chief executive, said by […]
IEA launches global group to tackle fallout from energy transition
Birol said he was optimistic the new U.S. administration would join other major economies in committing to a net zero emissions target by mid-century. President Biden has temporarily suspended the issuing of permits for oil and gas drilling in federal acreage, reversing the direction taken by his predecessor Donald Trump who had sought to maximise […]
Nel says ‘green’ hydrogen could be as cheap as fossil alternative by 2025
Nel makes electrolysers used to make so-called green hydrogen from water rather than from fossil fuels, and also hydrogen fuelling equipment OSLO: Norway’s Nel, a maker of zero-emission hydrogen technology, will expand its operations in 2021 to make its products more cost competitive, leading to a significant loss for the year, it said on Thursday. […]
Electric cars rise to record 54 per cent market share in Norway in 2020
Seeking to become the first nation to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025, oil-producing Norway exempts fully electric vehicles from taxes imposed on those relying on fossil fuels OSLO : The sale of electric cars in Norway overtook those powered by petrol, diesel and hybrid engines last year, with German auto-maker […]
German power export surplus shrank 46.2% in 2020
Cross-border trade is especially strong with France, which still bets on nuclear power – shunned in Germany for safety concerns which resulted in its plan for a scheduled withdrawal FRANKFURT: Germany saw its electricity export surplus shrink by 46.2 per cent in 2020 to 18.9 terawatt hours (TWh), raising the prospect that its dependency on […]
Norway’s Equinor, Hydro and Scatec to build solar farm in Brazil
OSLO: Equinor, aluminium producer Norsk Hydro and renewables company Scatec plan to jointly build a 480 megawatt (MW) solar farm in Brazil, they said on Wednesday. The three companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the project, Scatec said in a statement, which did not give details of the cost. The joint […]