NEMO - Emission-free areas with port and industry

Background

In a world facing a climate crisis, many public actors in Sweden have taken important steps towards change through ambitious goals of fossil independence and the transition to renewable energy use. One of these is Uddevalla municipality, which aims to be free from fossil energy use by 2030.

In Uddevalla, planning is underway for a port area and a new adjacent industrial area, which will begin to take shape in 2024. New industries will establish themselves in the area, which is expected to lead to increased energy needs and increased transport volumes, which in turn poses a challenge for the established environmental goals in the municipality. At the same time, the new establishment offers a unique opportunity to test new ways of creating a port and industrial operation without emissions of carbon dioxide. Uddevalla municipality has taken advantage of this opportunity, and in collaboration with RISE as a research partner and Uddevalla Energi as grid owner and supplier of district heating, has initiated the development of a zero-emission concept for the new industrial area with associated port and transport corridor. Uddevalla municipality also works for a development towards hydrogen as a fuel in the transport sector.

Project purpose and setup

The purpose of the project has been to show how energy-intensive activities can be run without emissions through the production of renewable electricity and heat and local storage of surplus energy. The goal has been to develop a zero-emission concept for a planned industrial area with an associated port and transport corridor in Uddevalla, which can serve as a model in the conversion of the energy system. The zero-emission concept will be used in a next step to implement developed proposals for measures and initiatives.

RISE has been responsible for project management and developed models for the energy system, performed calculations and simulations. Uddevalla municipality has been supporting the project management and assisted with information about, for example, current local plans and other local conditions. Uddevalla Energi has contributed with knowledge of the energy supply in the municipality and planned energy supply for the new area. The Port of Uddevalla has also played a key role in the project, even though they were not a formal partner, and contributed information about the port's operations.

The zero-emission concept

Various solutions for the area's energy supply for electricity, heating, vehicles and grain drying have been investigated. The practical feasibility and possible business models for the new energy system have also been taken into account.

The project results show that there are several technical and practical barriers to achieving a true emission-free area. Several of the technologies that would be required to make the port area completely emission-free are not available today. Despite this, it has also emerged that there are solutions that are indeed feasible today, both technically and economically, which would also lead to a noticeable improvement for the port area's climate footprint and whilst being fundamental to eventually make the port area completely emission-free.

The solution that proves to provide the greatest climate benefit in relation to its feasibility is to equip the premises and buildings to be built in the port area with solar panels on the roofs and that these buildings will be built in a way that takes this into account from the beginning. This is done, for example, by placing the roofs in the orientations which are most favorable for the solar panels.

The project was completed in February 2022 and the final report is available (in Swedish, only summary is in English) for downloading below.