Norway Wants to Become Europe's Battery

[marmar]

from Der Spiegel:



05/24/2012

Renewable Energy Ambitions
Norway Wants to Become Europe's Battery

By Christoph Seidler





Because wind and solar energy are inconsistent, energy managers are looking for ways to fill in the gaps when it is dark outside and the air is still. A Norwegian company wants to turn hydroelectric power stations in the north into Europe's battery packs.

For Christian Rynning-Tønnesen, a feeling of amazement came first, and then came the shudder. Like the head of the Norwegian energy company Statkraft, anyone who takes the tiny red funicular from the research base at Ny-Ålesund to the nearby Zeppelin Mountain has a breathtaking view of the Spitsbergen island in the northernmost part of Norway. Everything is white. Between the snow-covered peaks glaciers are visible in the Kongs Fjord. The research centers lying far below look like children's toys.

The train ends at a wooden house, a good 470 meters above the fjord. Rynning-Tønnesen is taking part in a symposium at Ny-Ålesund that has brought scientists, politicians and executives together to discuss environmentally-friendly technologies. On Zeppelin Mountain, the energy executive wants to be shown how the researchers measure carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the environment.

And this is when he shudders.

Because in the station, which is part of a worldwide network, it is frighteningly easy to see how human activity has warmed the planet. "We are already far beyond the natural variations of CO2 in the atmosphere," explains the host, Nalân Koç, research director of the Norwegian Polar Institute. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/norway-wants-to-offer-hydroelectric-resources-to-europe-a-835037.html