Photo: Agder Energy

1 Dec 2016

Expert: Nordic energy market experience can be replicated

“The well-developed energy markets in the Nordic countries, accommodating huge volumes of renewables could, in part, be replicated in other parts of the world”, says Svend Søyland, Senior Adviser at Nordic Energy Research (NER). He is managing a project to find out exactly how achieve just that.

The project is part of the new Nordic Prime Ministers’ initiative called Nordic Solutions for Global Challenges and expected to be launched in 2017.

“If successful, this could become a template for best practice,” Søyland says.

The common Nordic electricity market, which marks its 20th anniversary in 2016, is the most advanced cross-border energy grid in the world. One of its key features is that it allows for more sustainable energy systems, by linking, for example, hydro power to the grid in Norway, Sweden and Finland, which in turn makes it feasible to invest in wind power in Denmark and elsewhere. The renewable energy palette often broadens across national borders and, quite often, is only usable when made interdependent.

Fact-finding mission
Of course, there is no sense in starting without a proper fact finding mission to discover the current situation. The Nordic countries already provide financial support to developing countries, both on a commercial basis and as official development aid. Part of this funding is directed towards increasing energy access.

Svend Søyland

“The question is whether there is a role for Nordic Energy Research and Nordic Council of Ministers to create added value, to coordinate, improve or create synergies between the various Nordic institutions providing financial support, and thus help to increase energy access for developing countries. We do not want to step into fields that are saturated or where other actors are doing as good, or an even better job than what we can possibly deliver.”

Svend Søyland

Senior advisor at Nordic Energy Research

He is project leader for the Nordic Energy and Transport Platform and Nordic Green Growth programme. He is also involved in the Nordic Flagship Projects.

The project is to be developed through a fact finding mission conducted by NER in cooperation with the Nordic Council of Ministers’ secretariat and is expected to be finalised before the summer 2017.

Private investors
“Secondly, we aim to interact directly with the business community. However, businesses operating with renewable energy are quite fragmented. There is no such thing as a Nordic renewable energy cluster, and national clusters hardly interact.”

“So our next question is, is there added value in coordinating and getting businesses to work closer?”

Africa
“Since some of the countries in eastern Africa have the same sources of renewable energy available as in the Nordic region, we believe they could benefit from interacting and mutually supporting each other. By establishing grids and sharing expertise, we could make bigger and more interrelated systems.”

“Many would argue that the system we have in the Nordic countries is based on a hundred years of careful negotiations and trust building exercises, which is correct. This may pose a significant hurdle. However, if we manage to present the benefits that such cooperation can offer, then we believe that countries might ease up and understand the value of interdependence, as opposed to energy independence.”

There are already attempts to create energy markets across national borders, especially in northern and eastern Africa.

“South Africa has come quite far already, and there are also the initiatives by IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) that support countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future. IRENA has facilitated a project for the creation of a cross-border energy market in eastern and southern parts of Africa, the Africa Clean Energy Corridor. Also, Statnett and Nord Pool are providing guidance for the corridor project.”

Future energy systems
“The smartest grid will probably come to cities that are yet to be built. The smartest energy systems will perhaps evolve in Africa and not in Europe. Look at how the telephone system came to remote areas in Africa. It wasn’t via copper lines but rather directly via satellites.”

“My hope is that African countries might leap frog us and use the latest and most advanced technologies when building their interdependent energy systems.”