**Title**: Energy in the North - Mons Sellevold
**Date**: September 11, 2024
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Mons Sellevold

00;00;01;14 - 00;00;05;28 [Mons Sellevold] A reduction of CO2 emissions of 80% by 2030.

00;00;06;04 - 00;00;13;13 [Amanda Byrd] This week on Energy in the North, we speak with Mons Sellevold, a project manager for the Norwegian government owned Store Norsk Energi in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Mons and his team Svalbard. Mons and his team developed a pilot scale solar project in a small, remote community on the Svalbard Archipelago. And, they they're working towards a larger scale renewable energy system. I begin by asking you about the energy changes happening in Longyearbyen.

00;00;29;29 - 00;00;50;02 [Mons Sellevold] Last year, the community shut down the coal fired power plant and we are shutting down our coal mine next summer. So we will stop being a coal mining company. And that's also a little bit why we look into energy as a new branch for our company to have new business going on.

00;00;50;02 - 00;00;58;11 [Amanda Byrd] You've been part of a team helping the community transition to renewable energy. What have been the drivers of that energy transition?

00;00;58;11 - 00;01;02;16 [Mons Sellevold] Well, there are some official plans that says a reduction of CO2 emissions of 80% by 2030. That's plans made by the local municipality of Longyearbyen. well achieved, 40 to 50% already just by, transitioning from coal to diesel. so they already kind of did half of that job, but the rest will be solar and wind. And to approach 80% reduction by 2030. yeah, we will have to do both solar and wind, I think. Yeah.

00;01;34;28 - 00;01;37;26 [Amanda Byrd] Svalbard's really far North. What's the climate like up there?

00;01;37;26 - 00;01;50;23 [Mons Sellevold] It's high Arctic. It's situated at the 78th parallel. So it's yeah, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. But because of the Gulf Stream, we are much warmer than other communities at the same latitude. So it's not 100% comparable with the same latitude in Greenland or Canada, for instance.

00;02;02;29 - 00;02;09;23 [Amanda Byrd] As we speak, where in Kotzebue attending the Arctic Remote Energy Networks Academy or ARENA, an international knowledge sharing program developed here at UAF.

00;02;12;10 - 00;02;14;08 [Mons Sellevold] I learned actually that we are quite similar, that that's kind of the first impression I have. This is not so different, even though it's a completely different country. And yeah, the nature and geology and people and culture is of course different. But seeing how similar issues we have, that's kind of my first impression actually. And then I learn from this first movers like the people here in Kotzebue who built solar and wind many years ago. Actually, and a battery and we are just starting this now. And to be able to them learn from their both mistakes and successes is very important, I think. We are not that many in Longyearbyen working with these issues. We are not that many people living there in the first place. The company I work for, we just have a team of four people working with energy, so it's not that many colleagues to to ask and work with and if we need external competence, we tend to go to the consultants. They are maybe based in Oslo, far south, maybe not always know what challenges we have in the high Arctic when it comes to foundation permafrost issues, climate issues. Yeah, cold weather, no sunlight and all these specific issues, for Svalbard. So to be able to talk with other colleagues in the energy space, across the Arctic, I think it's more relevant.

00;03;42;26 - 00;03;47;06 [Amanda Byrd] Mons Sellevold is a renewable energy project manager in Longyearbyen on Norway's Svalbard Archipelago. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.