Faroe Business Report — The International Review of Faroe Islands Industry and Trade - Faroe Business Report — The International Review of Faroe Islands Industry and Trade

Together with StatoilHydro, Enercon and other key partners, Jarðfeingi is considering a project designed to create a truly sustainable and independent power and heating supply for the island of Nólsoy, based on renewable energy.

It’s been tried with success in a more limited scope and on a much smaller scale on the Norwegian island of Utsira but now the time could be right to take it to the next level: Making a 100-household island community self-sufficient with regard to energy — sustainable energy, that is.

For the Faroe Islands, the number one source of renewable energy would be wind. Well, the 265-inhabitant Nólsoy is a distinct community located 5.5 kilometers east of the Faroese capital of Tórshavn, or some 20 minutes by boat. A maximum 2.3 kilometers wide with only a couple of hundred yards at its narrowest, the island stretches 9 kilometers in a northwest-to-southeast diagonal. And there’s plenty of wind.

But wind is not a stable source of energy. Unlike water, for instance, you can’t easily collect and contain wind to achieve a controlled output of power. For one thing, the existing grid infrastructure can hardly tolerate the unevenness of non-interfaced power imports from wind turbines — appropriate means will be needed to even out the spikes and fill out the gaps. Besides, sustainable means economically viable too.

A feasibility study of the Nólsoy Project suggests that all this is perfectly possible as far as power is concerned. However, the community’s total heating demand requires a 10-percent backing of imported fossil fuel, if the bounds of practicality are not to be exceeded.

Headed by Jarðfeingi — the Faroese Earth and Energy Directorate — together with Norway’s hydrogen experts StatoilHydro, Germany’s windmill manufacturer Enercon, Faroese utility monopoly SEV, and local authority Municipality of Tórshavn, the Nólsoy Project promises major progress in the quest for sustainable energy supplies.

“If successfully carried out, this project will open up some very interesting perspectives,” said Jarðfeingi’s renewable energy specialist Terji Durhuus.

The Nólsoy Projects falls in line with the Faroe Islands’ new energy policy, as proposed in a task force report co-authored and delivered by Jarðfeingi to the Faroese government. Among the most tangible recommendations of the report: 20 percent of the country’s total energy consumption on land to be based on renewable energy sources by 2015; and the fuel consumption of the nation’s fishing fleet to be reduced by 15 percent in relation to the total volume of catch.

Besides, the Faroe Islands’ new utility bill encourages less fossil fuel dependency, recommending more use of renewable energy sources and competition as far as concerns the production of electricity.

“Wind power is envisaged to be outsourced via competitive tender,” Mr Durhuus said. “It’s the only economically credible alternative for power generation in many places, not least in the Faroes. We have a huge potential here. If we manage to stabilize wind power, we’ll largely be able to supply Faroe’s energy need. But this is a challenge inasmuch as wind is an unstable power source.”

The solution: even it out with hydrogen — produce hydrogen in periods with excess wind power; store it and convert it back to electricity in periods with insufficient wind power.

In spite of the fact that economic success hasn’t been achieved yet, the up and coming hydrogen technology is capturing the imagination of the energy sector across the globe with massive vindication.

“So we are looking at hydrogen to stabilize power output,” Mr Durhuus added. “The Nólsoy Project will be economically viable if surplus energy can be exported to the existing grid — that is, when the hydrogen storage is full with sufficient energy being generated at the same time, if that surplus can be exported to the SEV grid, then this will be economically viable, based on today’s energy prices. And the heating will be taken care of using heat pump technology, either geothermal or air-to-water. In other words, the people of Nólsoy will be paying the same for power and heating as they do now.”

Interesting perspectives? From a Faroese point of view, making the system a success, then scale it up for the whole of the country, would indeed make a difference.

From a StatoilHydro and Enercon point of view, the underlying incentive should be seen in a global business context.

“As to the hydrogen produced by electrolysis with power from the wind, this can be used to power more electricity or as a fuel.”

And if the new Nólsoy ferry “Ritan” gets the go-ahead, it will be completed in about two years — prepared for using hydrogen in conjunction with diesel to produce electricity for driving the propulsion.

Link to pdf presentation...

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