VIEWPOINTS

Urgent need to commercialise CCS

At last it is now possible to capture CO2 at industrial scales without state subsidy, and countries across the world should be persuading private industry to identify storage sites that will make a real difference.

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Corrosion forecast technology can cut costs and reduce waste

High energy prices highlight the importance of the thousands of kilometres of insulated pipe networks and equipment in industrial plants. However, corrosion under the pipes’ insulation is hard to detect and can have severe consequences. New surveillance technology being developed by SINTEF can help combat this looming threat.

Artist's impression of subsea oil and gas installation
VIEWPOINTS

Simulation model may reduce the climate footprint of oil production

Future offshore oil and gas fields are most likely to be “satellite developments” that are less expensive and emit less greenhouse gases than other fields because they do not require new production platforms. An innovative Norwegian computational tool called “Slug Capturing 2” is now enabling the design of longer pipelines that will allow many more fields to be developed as satellites.

Preparing ourselves for extreme events

As wildfires raged through the Swedish forests in 2018, a new set of European resilience management guidelines for dealing with crises was demonstrating its potential usefulness to decision-makers. Applying these recommendations can save many lives and protect major infrastructure assets during cross-sectoral accidents and crises.

More hydropower and a better environment

The Norwegian public authorities’ estimates of the potential to expand the country’s power plants are probably too low. A new approach is creating opportunities for increased production while also enhancing environmental aspects.

The astronaut’s extra nose

How do we protect astronauts in space from breathing dangerous gases? A German-Norwegian hi-tech optical gas sensor provides a solution.

Air could be the world’s next battery

Storing compressed air in sealed tunnels and mines could be a way of storing energy in the future – if an EU project in which Norway is a partner is successful.

Svalbard’s electric power 
could come from hydrogen

Longyearbyen, the world’s most northerly city, could save more than 100 million kroner (11.5 million US dollars) a year in the cost of electricity, if a completely green hydrogen-fuelled power station is built in preference to laying a cable from the mainland, according to calculations made by SINTEF scientists.

What makes us buy electric cars?

Exemption from excise at the time of purchase is the instrument that has the most influence in persuading people to buy plug-in electric vehicles in Norway, the world’s leader in EV sales per capita. Free use of toll roads is also a factor – for every second electric car driver.

To innvandrerkvinner med hodeplagg passerer foran berømt norsk nasjonalromantisk maleri der Espen Askeladd skuer mot Soria Moria.

Immigrant women ready for work in record time

Poorly educated immigrant women qualify rapidly for a life in work as part of a Norwegian pilot project involving an “all-in-one” language tuition and vocational training programme.

To personer i varmehemmende beskyttelsesdrakt løfter rødglødende gjenstand ut av lab-ovn.

Ultrafine industrial dust to be studied

A Norwegian interdisciplinary project is aiming to ensure that workplace exposure to microscopic dust particles is kept to a minimum for smelter personnel.

Mann i hvit frakk sitter på laboratorium der han ser på solcelle han holder i hendene.

Even greener solar power on the way

Europe wants to reduce its needs for raw materials and raise the level of recycling of resources in the solar power industry. If this project is successful, greenhouse gas emissions from solar panel manufacture will fall by 25 to 30 per cent.

Electrical car seen while charging its battery

Norway’s EV purchasing spree is climate friendly

If every other passenger car in Norway is plugged into the electric network by 2020, Europe will have to produce more electricity – mainly from coal-fired power plants – to meet the demand. But it will be a plus for the climate nonetheless.

TB forgotten in fight against HIV

Tuberculosis seems to have fallen between the cracks in poverty-stricken Malawi’s sponsor-dependent health sector. The dominating focus on HIV may have left parts of Africa with a skewed health service, say researchers.