Jarand Rystad: "Energy Hubs in the Desert Could Disrupt European Industry"

Future energy hubs will be located in deserts. They will be massive, and they could have a huge impact on European value chains.

“Energy hubs of the future will be built in desert areas near shore, producing power both day and night by combining gigantic solar and wind power plants. These will be the biggest energy projects ever developed in the world,” says Jarand Rystad, CEO of Rystad Energy, a world-leading energy research company headquartered in Oslo.

“We are looking at 26 gigawatts in one single plant. That is close to the entire Norwegian output – in one plant! These energy hubs are not built to support local markets, but rather for big scale production of ammonia, aluminum, steel, other metals, chemicals and more,” says Rystad.

Linking this development to the current situation in Europe, where factories are closing due to extreme energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine, Rystad asks:

“Maybe these new energy hubs are built so fast that there is no business case for re-opening the European factories? It may be cheaper to build a new factory close to the energy hub”.

Time for Energy – a new webcast by Volue

Time for Energy is a series of discussions about technology and the opportunities in the energy transition. Each episode features two industry experts in dialogue with Trond Straume, CEO of Volue.

The second guest of the first episode is Tor Reier Lilleholt, Head of Analysis at Insight by Volue, and the most quoted energy price expert in Norwegian media. Looking ahead, Lilleholt says it is very hard to predict the direction of energy prices.

“Weather will play a major role. Depending on the weather situation, we could see electricity prices close to zero next year – or they can go as high as NOK 5-6 per kWh,” says Lilleholt.

Watch the full eposide below, or listen to the podcast version.