We can’t allow Google to waste its surplus heat
The new Google data centre being built in Skien is in danger of wasting its surplus heat because Norway has no legislation that reduces this risk. We really need to address this issue!
New knowledge will offer cheaper and greener rail services
New lubricants, combined with new knowledge about how they should be applied to train wheels and rails, have the potential to reduce rail sector costs in Norway by hundreds of millions of kroner during the next decade.
Green and everlasting concrete is no longer a distant dream
Everlasting concrete is here! It requires no maintenance, and its manufacture emits 80 per cent less CO2 than current products. And just recently, its inventors have been awarded a research prize for their achievement.
Digital ‘mini-factories’ will help save on costs, energy and materials
From just one screen, SINTEF engineers are now able to run trials using a digital twin of a real production facility. They will soon be able to see whether planned changes have the desired effect.
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.
A new method of detecting indirect corporate emissions
How does the chain of suppliers impact on a company’s climate footprint? This is a key question and, according to a recently established entrepreneur in the field, Norwegian know-how stands ready to offer the world the answer.
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.
The computing industry can assist Polish refugee centres
Speedy work carried out for free in Norway resulted in an IT system that protects refugees against human traffickers at the Polish-Ukrainian border. This type of aid work may become financially self-supporting.
Six factors that will determine the cost of offshore wind power
Large cost cuts are achievable for both floating and bottom-fixed wind farms in the future. If we do this correctly, floating wind turbines will be able to compete with bottom-fixed wind turbines by 2030.
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.
App improves quality of life for hard-hit patient group
A recently developed app with an in-built “enzyme calculator” reduces stomach pains and intestinal problems among patients with cystic fibrosis – a disease of the lungs and intestinal tract.
Not easy finding dust masks suitable for women
The smelting industry needs to promote the availability of dust masks of more than one size, according to the research scientists behind a recent working environment study at Norwegian smelting plants.
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.
Scientists say 55,000 Norwegians suffer after-effects of trauma
The number of adults in Norway who suffer from PTSD is equivalent to practically an entire year class of Norwegians, claims a new study.
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.
Electronic sensor system to prevent mining explosions
A wireless network of sensors aimed at preventing explosions in mines is an innovation of worldwide significance that is being developed by a Norwegian-African cooperative project.
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.
Lab results could improve offshore production economics
Norwegian laboratory tests show that gas wells can continue to be productive longer than we predicted, before they need expensive “anti-ageing” support.
Scandinavian experiment receives prestigious sustainable energy award
The EcoGrid EU project, an energy-market concept empowering households to manage renewables, wins one of the EU Sustainable Energy Awards 2016.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Guardrails with inbuilt noise-barriers are on the way
A combined solution offers better protection against traffic noise – and can also benefit two-wheeled road-users.
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.
Bacteria from the sea join the fight against cancer and infections
Norwegian scientists are opening the gates of nature’s secret medicine factories, with the aim of giving us new weapons against cancers and resistant bacteria.
Healthier indoor climate for heavy industry
A dust extraction unit that exploits the laws of nature has made the indoor climate on the ‘shop-floor’ of the Thamshavn smelter in Norway 75 percent cleaner.
Researchers advise against giving health related benefits to healthy youth
Young people without severe health problems should not be given work assessment allowance. They should instead be the responsibility of the municipal services, says one of the most highly recognized labor market researchers in Norway.
This is where future power generation in Norway will be developed
Imagine a power generation laboratory housing a generator equivalent to a 40 kilometre-long line of AA batteries connected in series. Well, now it’s here – and was formally opened by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Haakon on 2 September.