Renewable energy

Greening Achilles heel sectors: Understanding environmental policy change in Latin American primary industries. An introduction to the research project GREENLEAP. 

The development of green ammonia (NH3) has recently gained wide interest due to its potential to decarbonize ammonia production and as a carbon-free solution for energy storage and transportation. Green ammonia production is purely based on renewable energy sources and no carbon is associated with its use, e.g. as a chemical fertilizer, or when ammonia is combusted in an engine. However, the production and use of ammonia come with other climate and environmental challenges due to its alteration of the Earth’s nitrogen cycle.

Norway’s climate target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and become a low-emissions society by 2050, will require significantly stronger climate and energy policies. In NOREGRET, social and energy scientists are studying how such a transition can be carried out.

The ZEESA research project aims to provide knowledge on how best to develop integrated renewable energy systems for demanding Arctic conditions. The project is a "Competence-building project for business" that works across natural science and social science methods.

As part of a new EU-funded project, CICERO will study the conditions for community energy in Norway and Europe. Community energy has been identified by the EU as an important pathway to promote the energy transition towards a low-carbon society.

In the research project INDGREEN, CICERO will contribute to understanding the relationship between India’s handling of its low-carbon domestic development and its role in international climate negotiations.

The project will meet the urgent need for social science research on flexible electricity policy and technology in Norway.

REMIX analyses how the EU shapes national policies on renewable energy in six countries and vice versa. This knowledge will help forecasting future developments in European renewable policies.

Renewable energy currently stands for approximately 15% of the EU’s total energy consumption, and substantially more in the Nordics. The EU plans to increase the overall share of renewable energy to at least 20% by 2020 and 27% by 2030. These targets are implemented through a variety of European and national policy measures.

The REMIX project zooms in on six European countries:

France
Germany
Norway
Poland
Sweden 
the UK

An interdisciplinary team of researchers will analyse various factors that shape the European policy mix:

- National support schemes for renewable energy and EU state aid rules;
- National capacity mechanism regulations;
- The EU's climate and energy targets for 2020 and 2030;
- The pending reform of the  EU's renewable energy directive and emission trading system.

Based on these case studies, the project will develop scenarios and guidelines that forecast how national and European renewable energy policy development will develop in the next years.

The project is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and several Nordic energy actors.

Politically Feasible Renewable Energy Development: The Role of Public Acceptance.

The over-arching task of this project is to study the political feasibility of the low carbon energy policy transition initiated by the EU. In order to adopt and implement efficient policies at the regional, national and local level, public acceptance for policy change will be crucial.