In focus: The dawn of energy independence is coming

As many countries around the world are choosing to shift away from Russian fossil fuels due to the ongoing Ukrainian crisis and turning to different sources, others are seizing the momentum and working towards securing energy independence through clean energy options.

The multifaceted Russia cutoff seems to have the potential to accelerate the green transition and bring the importance of clean energy projects into focus.

In the week behind us, the U.S. banned the imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and coal while the UK government decided to phase out Russian oil imports in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine and in an effort to reduce and end their reliance on Russian fossil fuels.

U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Tuesday prohibiting the importation into the United States of products of Russian origin, including crude oil; petroleum; petroleum fuels, oils, and products of their distillation; liquefied natural gas; coal; and coal products.

Moreover, the order bans all new investments in the energy sector in Russia by a U.S. person.

The move comes at a time when U.S. oil and gas production is approaching record highs. The Biden Administration has been clear that, in the short-term, supply must keep up with demand, at home and around the world while the world makes the shift to a secure clean energy future.

The White House also stressed that, in the long run, the way to avoid high gas prices is to speed up – not slow down – the transition to a clean energy future.

In line with this, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has urged the oil and gas companies to increase their production to stabilize the market following the global energy crisis.

Granholm underlined that the government is here to work with anyone and everyone who’s serious about taking a leap toward the future by diversifying energy portfolio to add clean fuels and technologies, whether it is clean hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, offshore wind, geothermal, lithium from geothermal brines, sustainable aviation fuels, or EV charging.

Furthermore, the United Kingdom announced it would “phase out imports of Russian oil in response to Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine by the end of the year.”

However, the phasing out of imports will not be immediate, but instead allows the UK more than enough time to adjust supply chains, supporting industry and consumers.

The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed that the government will set out an energy strategy to set out the UK’s long-term plans for greater energy security, including both renewable and domestic oil and gas supplies. The country also reportedly plans to step up its production of oil and gas.

On the offshore wind agenda, Scotland also wants to ensure that it has no business ties with Russia.

Crown Estate Scotland has requested the winners of the ScotWind offshore wind auction to submit formal, written assurances that they will adhere, at all times, to the relevant sanctions imposed on Russia.

“Crown Estate Scotland is committed to taking all appropriate action to not support trade and investment activity with Russia”, Scotland’s seabed manager states. 

Following the initial check, Crown Estate Scotland is now requesting formal assurance from all applicants and project partners involved in each of the 17 applications that they will adhere to the relevant sanctions regimes.

In light of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the European Commission has proposed an outline of a plan, which is supposed to make European Union member states independent from Russian fossil fuels well before 2030, starting with gas.

As explained, REPowerEU will seek to diversify gas supplies, speed up the roll-out of renewable gases, and replace gas in heating and power generation. This can reduce EU demand for Russian gas by two thirds before the end of the year, a Tuesday statement from the EC said.

Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We must become independent from Russian oil, coal and gas. We simply cannot rely on a supplier who explicitly threatens us. We need to act now to mitigate the impact of rising energy prices, diversify our gas supply for next winter and accelerate the clean energy transition.

“The quicker we switch to renewables and hydrogen, combined with more energy efficiency, the quicker we will be truly independent and master our energy system.“

The move has prompted Norwegian hydrogen company NEL ASA to increase its electrolyser production capacity in order to meet the EU’s raised ambitions for renewable hydrogen.

Nel’s electrolyser plant at Herøya can provide 500 MW of capacity to the market. Moreover, it has the possibility to expand up to 2 GW.

Another Norwegian company, Horisont Energi, said Barents Blue, Europe’s first large-scale blue ammonia production facility, has accomplished key milestones.

The Barents Blue project’s concept is to use natural gas from the Barents Sea to produce ammonia. It promises to provide Europe’s first large-scale clean ammonia production, located in Finnmark in Northern Norway. Once operational, the facility will have a production capacity of 3000 tonnes of ammonia per day.

Norway will also invest NOK 200 million ($22.41m) in HYDROGENi, a new center for energy research dedicated to hydrogen and ammonia, that is to help the energy transition.

“Hydrogen is a prerequisite for the energy transition globally, in Europe and in Norway. It will add strategic autonomy to the energy system, a highly relevant topic in Europe today. H2 can make the energy system more resilient, but also help us achieve our net-zero target by 2050,” said Alexandra Bech Gjørv, CEO of SINTEF.

Within the context of hydrogen, this week also witnessed an agreement between Italian classification society RINA and marine systems provider 5M Renewables for the collaboration on the concept development for the floating green hydrogen production vessel.

The collaboration on the concept named Thessalonica Hydroship is expected to contribute to the decarbonisation efforts of the marine and energy segment. According to RINA, Thessalonica HydroShip converts the energy from wind or tidal stream turbines into green hydrogen. It does not require the use of an FPSO, thus greatly reducing the overall levelized cost of energy (LCOE) to yield cost-competitive hydrogen.

Moving to the tidal energy industry, a new report released by Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) shows that ocean energy deployments are back to pre-pandemic levels, with Europe installing over ten times as much tidal energy capacity and three times as much wave energy compared to 2020.

Both the wave and tidal energy sectors installed significantly more capacity in 2021 than the previous year, adding 1.39MW and 3.12MW respectively worldwide, according to the statistics report published on March 10, 2022. Europe is still dominating global tidal stream activity.

In shipping sector-related news, Danish shipping and logistics giant Maersk hit the headlines as it entered six separate strategic partnerships to secure green fuel supply for its fleet of twelve new 16,000 TEU methanol-powered boxships. With this move, Maersk will distance itself even more from fossil fuels as it works towards its 2040 net-zero commitment.

Another significant project was announced when six Japanese companies decided to form a strategic alliance aimed at reducing environmental impact through the development of Japan’s first methanol-fueled tanker.

Speaking about carbon footprint reduction in line with energy transition goals, the subsea sector came into focus this week as well. Legasea has secured funding from Scottish Enterprise for a project that aims to reduce the carbon footprint of subsea decommissioning operations by taking equipment that is no longer required and finding ways to refurbish, recertify, remanufacture and reuse it, keeping in use as many components as possible.

The Aberdeenshire-based subsea services start-up plans to invest £1.3 million during the three-year project, supported by a £187,950 grant to be received following the creation of at least six new green jobs. 

The service, named Shore to Store, has a projected annual carbon saving of 10,000 tons CO2e.