Energy Transition in Europe | www.energy-cities.eu

The ongoing energy transition brings new opportunities for utilisation of distributed energy resources (DER) and for the evolution in the role of end-users from passive consumers to active customers, who both produce and consume energy.

The IEA’s report released earlier this year, “Hydrogen in North-Western Europe: A vision towards 2030”, welcomes the fact that the six countries analysed – Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK – have the ambition to build a hydrogen economy. They are Europe’s major hydrogen producers and consumers, have major ports that already service this sector, have natural gas infrastructure that can be repurposed, and access to new offshore wind and carbon storage capacity that can make low or no-carbon hydrogen. But the report’s main purpose is to warn that the current pipeline of projects is not enough to meet ambitions. Policies must be strengthened, with better coordination. The report makes its recommendations, including the development of an integrated regional market, support for innovation and market size scale-up, and the creation of a strategy for new production capacities for low-carbon hydrogen.

Norway is set to become the first country in the entire world to ban the use of gas to heat buildings.
The Scandinavian country, which is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside the Middle East, will wholly stop the use of both oil and paraffin to warm buildings from 2020 onwards.
The country, which hopes to ban the sale of all fossil fuel-based cars by 2025, has made a concerted effort to introduce policies which shrink domestic emission of greenhouse gases.

Récemment récompensée du prix de la capitale la plus verte d’Europe, Oslo peut se targuer d’être la ville au monde dont la mobilité est la plus douce. La capitale norvégienne s’appuie également sur un cahier des charges très stricts pour la rénovation et la construction de logement, défendant les matériaux durables et l’efficacité énergétique. Le tout en incluant largement les citoyens aux décisions de la municipalité.

The Oslo placemaking toolbox provides you with access to free manuals to make your community more livable. All tools were developed and tested in Norway by a vibrant community of placemakers. Many of the manuals evolved as part of our work to make cities more green and social. The Oslo toolbox is open source and embedded in the Placemaking Europe toolbox you can browse for further inspiration. It was developed as part of the PlaceCity project you can learn about here.

Northern Lights, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project backed by the Norwegian government, is drilling test wells in the North Sea to find suitable places to store CO2. Project partners include Shell and Total, and others are joining them. CO2 will be shipped to an onshore terminal from which it is piped to the subsea wells. Once established, the plan is for other European countries to send their CO2 too. The project will also create the first large-scale CCS facilities in waste-to-energy and cement production. Writing for the Atlantic Council, Lee Beck explains that the model of government leadership, investment and skill-sharing should provide a pathway for the rest of the world to follow. The need is urgent, given CCS’s capital intensity and as yet unproven business model. The IEA says over 2,000 CCS facilities are needed by 2040 to meet climate targets. Today there are only 19 large-scale plants. In recognition of those stark facts, Northern Lights has already been designated a Project of Common Interest by the EU, making it eligible for expedited permitting and EU funds.