Climate
To fulfil our vision of a renewable future, where everyone can lead a fulfilling, yet sustainable life, we need to actively work to reduce the climate impact of our operations. In our sustainability strategy, we have set a goal for Eolus to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040. This means that Eolus’ operations and our entire value chain should achieve a balance where the total greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted should be in balance with what is removed.
Net-Zero Emissions by 2040
Wind and sun are renewable resources, and electricity generation from wind and solar power helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to land, air, and water. However, establishing wind turbines, solar panels, and energy storage systems is not climate-neutral. Therefore, we are working actively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that stem from our business activates and have set a target to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040 across our value-chain. Our ambition is to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) which means that we will commit to setting emission reduction targets based in the latest scientific knowledge that are aligned with the Paris Agreements 1.5 scenario. We are in the process of mapping Eolus’ emission sources to formulate our target and will publish it publicly once it has been accepted.
Case Study - The World's First Climate-Neutral Seabed Survey
In 2023, the first climate-neutral* seabed survey for offshore wind power was conducted. In the Finnish project Wellamo, the seabed survey was carried out by Clinton Marine Survey, using ships powered by the completely renewable and fossil-free fuel HVO100.
“With technology that allows us to use smaller ships and fossil-free fuels, we can make the survey climate-neutral,” says Philip Ljungström, Project Manager at Clinton.
“Using HVO100 may be slightly more expensive than regular diesel, but the environment is important to us, and it has been exciting to test this way to reduce the project’s carbon footprint,” says Måns Larsson, Project Manager at Eolus.
Picture from Clinton Marine Survey
The shipping involved in the measurement, construction, and maintenance of offshore wind farms is an unavoidable environmental risk. However, with ships powered by HVO100, the impact is significantly reduced. HVO stands for Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil and is a renewable fuel for diesel engines. The fuel can be made from various raw materials such as vegetable oils and animal fats, which are processed to become diesel engine fuel. Typically, according to Clinton Marine Survey, 6,000 to 10,000 liters of diesel are used per day during a seabed survey.
“According to our calculations, we saved between 500 and 845 tons of CO2e in the Wellamo project,” says Philip Ljungström.
We are proud to be the first to use this fuel in seabed surveys and hope it soon becomes standard
Anna Lundsgård, Head of Offshore at Eolus
*HVO100 reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent according to the manufacturer Neste. The remaining 10 percent CO2e is compensated by Clinton. This is primarily done through the planting of mangrove trees. In cases where this is not possible, Clinton uses HVO100 in another project to compensate for the remaining 10 percent. This is possible because not all projects run on HVO100 today, due to the higher cost of the fuel.
** The calculation is performed through a comparison of emissions with the number of liters of diesel that would have been used if HVO100 had not been utilized.