global forces, explosive growth
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In March 2010, consultants Mandag Morgen and Menon Business Economics published the results of their survey looking at "fields of technology linked to renewable energy and environmental services" in the Oslo region.
The report identified more than 700 companies, employing 12,000 people, with a combined turnover of NOK 100 billion. Value added was NOK 46 billion, equalling five per cent of total value added in the eight counties of the region. In terms of revenue, this "Clean Tech" cluster had grown 150 per cent over the eight years to 2009.
"We find that a majority of the companies, as well as many of the biggest ones, are found under the heading 'traditional industries with particular relevance to the environment'", the report continued. "The two industries, hydropower and waste treatment, count 430 businesses representing 70 per cent of total revenues. The fastest growing companies on the other hand are in different forms of renewable energy. The 16 solar companies increased their revenues from NOK 56 million in 2000 to 8.8 billion in 2008, boasting an annual growth rate of close to 90 per cent."
The report itself was a perfect illustration of the way the same global forces driving the environmental technology sector are responsible for an explosive growth in what was once seen as a rather arcane field: environmental consultancy.
Laws, rules and guidelines
Few if any individuals, companies or public sector bodies can be familiar with all - or even very many - of the thousands of acts of environmental legislation, regulations, guidelines and agreements in accordance with which they must conduct their business in a bewildering miscellany of technical and policy areas. Environmental consulting is often the best hope of ensuring compliance with these
laws, rules and guidelines.
Conversely, no single consultant can master all of the disciplines involved in many business or government activities. The result is a welter of experts. Some know all about their technological or industrial speciality, others focus on environmental principles and processes, and others still on technical points of law.
Typically, a large consultancy will offer a mind-boggling range of services, usually divided into broad categories such as planning, engineering, building and construction, or ICT. Within these categories - and often falling into more than one - will be such specialities as quality assurance, geotechnical engineering, geophysics, hydrogeology, hydrology, mining, air quality, ecological services, cultural sciences, waste management, health and safety, landscape architecture, water treatment, information management, risk and decision analysis, training and education .... |
The breakdown into specialities continues. A construction project might require hazard assessments for asbestos and/or lead; an application for change of use to a local authority might call for an environmental impact assessment, while environmental due diligence - a form of a risk analysis - is bound up with complex EU legal liability systems, national legislation and contract law, often combined with a range of industrial-scale tests and analyses.
Consider, for example, what it takes to carry out an environmental impact assessment (EIA), most often required in connection with a planning application for a large development: anything from an offshore oil and gas platform, wind farm, sewage works or factory to a new marina or aquaculture project.
The EIA process is likely to start with baseline environ-mental studies and surveys, which involve collecting and reviewing information on local conditions. Where information is lacking, or incom-plete, site surveys, hydro- graphic and meteorological surveys, or other specialist studies may be required, covering marine or terrestrial habitats, individual species, the seabed, local topography, etc.
"Stakeholders" must also be taken into account and consulted: local and regional planning authorities, govern-ment environmental protection agencies, non-governmental organizations and pressure groups, industrial and professional bodies, and of course local residents.
Additional studies that may be required include risk assessment, atmospheric and dispersion modelling, plus noise impact, landscape and visual impact studies. The developer may have to reduce the impact by changing the location or design of project, by making operational changes (e.g., to reduce discharges) or by providing for remedial measures such as land reclamation.
The consultant may have to provide survey and moni-toring tools such as end-of-pipe measurements and operational or waste audits, involving discharges, their dispersion and likely zone of impact, and any changes over time. Once the EIA is complete, the results are submitted as a statement with the planning application. These documents must be clearly written, however complex the issues, so as to be comprehensive but clear to non-experts. Graphics and maps are important here, while posters and web sites may be used to reach the wider public.
Complex undertakings such as EIAs are clearly the bread and butter of most environmental consultancies. But consultants also tend to get involved in less technical activities: environmental awareness training for employees of a client company, for example. Consultants can also help to draw up corporate environmental policies and environmental management systems, which set standards and targets in specialist categories such as emissions reduction or recycling. These can be very useful additions to annual reports or AGMs as shareholders and the public are increasingly con-cerned with environmental as well as financial performance.
One of the more intriguing Norwegian environmental technology projects in recent years has been the development of a fleet of car ferries powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). The potential benefits associated with this technology are numerous, ranging from total or near-total reductions in emissions of various kinds to new loading routines and huge savings in energy consumption. The technologies are thought to be adaptable to other domestic and international ship categories. |
A low-carbon future
According to the Environ-mental Data Services (ENDS) publishing group, the leading UK source of information on European environmental policy and legislation, this is par for the course for Norway, which is a world-beater in planning for a low-carbon future and "transition to the world of renewables" through its work on environmental technology.
That process has been accelerated thanks to Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg's audacious pledge in 2007 that Norway would be a carbon-neutral country by 2050 - followed by a statement in early 2008 that Norway would try to achieve the goal even earlier, by 2030.
"The move was calculated to protect Norway's reputation as a sustainable development pioneer and broker for good in the world", writes ENDS. Norway does indeed have a head start, given that virtually all of its mainland electricity comes from hydropower and that the country is rich enough to fund emission reductions in other parts of the economy and buy carbon offsets abroad to cover what emissions remain. ENDS adds: "Norway wants to be as central to that new renewable age as it has been to the petroleum era".
Sun, wind and water
| | |  | | | | | | | |  | | | | Can the polar bear adapt to climate change? Norway, as a
major exporter of fossil fuels, "bears a special responsibility"
to address such issues.
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In view of Norway's global ambitions, perhaps it is not so surprising that, notwithstanding the country's reputation for dark winters and rough weather, one of the biggest photovoltaic (PV) solar energy companies Renewable Energy Corp (REC), is Norwegian - a logical extension, too, of Norway's metallurgical tradition, which has led to world-class expertise in working with silicon, the material used in solar cells.
PV costs per watt of capacity have been falling rapidly and are now thought likely to approach those of more conventional power sources much earlier than expected just a few years ago, which would make the industry competitive with conventional electricity in the near future. REC reckons new solar installations could meet all the world's additional annual electricity demand by 2020.
In the meantime, SolarNor (now Catch Solar Energy AS), an Oslo-based company, has developed a flexible solar heating system which can already provide up to half of the energy consumed in an average house in the Norwegian capital, and even more further south. Among completed projects utilizing this system are Klosterenga, a block of 35 flats in Oslo, and several developments in Spain.
Another important Norwegian renewable energy project has been developed by aluminium producer Norsk Hydro, which merged with Statoil in 2007. Statoil is now harnessing Norway's offshore expertise to develop free-floating wind turbines: the company's pilot project Hywind, the world’s first full-scale floating wind turbine, was launched in September 2009.
Hywind's test run is set for two years. In the meantime, US energy giant General Electric (GE) announced in March 2010 that it had decided to invest NOK 600 million in expanding its wind power activities in Norway, creating 100 new jobs and giving Norway "a pivotal role in their strategy for offshore wind", according to a report by national Norwegian radio NRK. Projects include a new Offshore Technology Development Centre in Oslo.
Barely a month after the launch of Hywind, state-owned utility Statkraft claimed another world first for Norway: a prototype osmotic power plant, which produces emissions-free electricity by mixing fresh water and sea water through a special membrane. The prototype is tiny, generating barely enough energy to heat a small kettle; but the aim is to produce enough electricity to light and heat a small town within five years.
Centres of excellence
CICERO (the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo) is an independent research institute established by the Norwegian government in 1990 and associated with the University of Oslo. A guiding principle is that Norway, as a major exporter of fossil fuels, "bears a special responsibility in international cooperation on climate and the environment".
The institute studies and advises on national and international issues related to climate change and climate policy. Its mandate is "to conduct research and provide reports, information and expert advice about issues related to global climate change and international climate policy with the aim of acquiring knowledge that can help mitigate the climate problem and enhance international climate cooperation" through a web site, a free popular-scientific climate magazine, a press cuttings service, and a "Climate Forum where researchers and representatives from government and business and industry can exchange information and viewpoints."
With a staff of about 70, CICERO is part of a network of national and international research communities cooperating through the Oslo Centre for Interdisciplinary Environmental and Social Research (CIENS), which describes itself as "a strategic research collaboration between independent research institutes and the University of Oslo". The centre conducts a shared scientific strategy and research programme involving about 500 researchers in the natural and social sciences, technology and economics. As well as CICERO, participants in CIENS include the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (met.no), the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR), the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), the Norwegian Centre for Transport Research (TOI), the University of Oslo (UiO), and the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE).
These bodies are in effect a roll call of excellence in environment related research, and are well worth a closer look:
- met.no carries out government-funded R&D in the development and improvement of operational models, tasks related to environmental emergency services, and general climate research.
- NIBR, an interdisciplinary social science centre for urban and regional research, also works internationally in such fields as planning, land use and urban development and environmental and development issues.
- NILU conducts environmental research with emphasis on the sources of airborne pollution, atmospheric transport, transformation and deposition and is also involved in the assessment of the effects of pollution on ecosystems, human health and materials.
- NINA, Norway's leading institution for applied ecological research, is responsible for long-term strategic research and commissioned applied research to facilitate the implementation of the relevant international conventions, decision-support systems and management tools, and to enhance public awareness and promote conflict resolution.
- NIVA is Norway's leading multidisciplinary research institute in the field of use and protection of water bodies and water quality, in fresh and marine waters.
- TOI is a national institution for research and development covering most of the current major issues in road, rail, sea and air transport.
- UiO, in particular the Department of Geosciences, covers a very broad spectrum of subjects in natural geography, geology, geophysics, hydrology, meteorology and oceanography. Many of its research activities are connected with the environmental sciences.
- NVE is responsible for ensuring consistent and environmentally sound management of water resources, promoting an efficient energy market and cost-effective energy systems, and contributing to the economic utilization of energy
A similar-but-different kind of networking - and consultancy - is the concern of Green Business Norway, a professional organization for companies in the environmental energy and technology sector, which promotes R&D, funding and capital for innovative projects and enterprises. Its membership is recruited from businesses involved in products with environmental and environment-friendly profiles, including sustainable environmental and energy technology, recycling, and environmental and energy consulting.
Green Business Norway provides its members with information and advice on new ventures, innovation and export, and helps with planning and conducting meetings, seminars and other arrangements. It also aims to serve as a catalyst for project development involving member companies. |
