00:00 Mine number 7 is the last working Norwegian mine in Svalbard archipelago.
00:06 It will close permanently next summer.
00:09 It's part of the authorities' plan to switch to alternative energy sources.
00:13 When I started working in the mine, we were supposed to be doing it to 2045 around.
00:19 And just a year later we got told that we were closing.
00:24 Right now I'm calm about it. I try not to think too much about it.
00:31 All miners and maintenance staff are set to lose their jobs.
00:35 The closure of mine 7 was scheduled for 2023,
00:40 but due to the war in Ukraine and rising energy prices, that was pushed back to 2025.
00:47 Every year, the mine produced about 30,000 tonnes for heating the archipelago's capital Longyearbyen
00:54 and another 80,000 tonnes for the needs of the metallurgical and chemical industries in Europe, including Germany.
01:01 Last autumn, however, Longyearbyen abandoned coal and switched its only power plant to diesel.
01:09 According to Mayor Terje Onevik, this is the first stage of the energy transition.
01:16 Due to the use of coal, about 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted into the atmosphere every year,
01:23 and the town needed to find something more efficient.
01:26 I know it sounds a bit weird because we go from fossil fuels to fossil fuels,
01:33 but diesel is a good first step because it's more flexible.
01:38 We have invested in a new battery park to stabilize it,
01:43 and that makes it easier for us to phase in renewables like wind and sun.
01:49 The direct green transition in Svalbard is handled by Måns Olle Sellevold,
01:55 an employee of the state-owned company Storinoske.
01:59 The company has been mining coal in Svalbard for 100 years and is now investing in green energy.
02:05 Måns' projects are a solar panel park outside Longyearbyen at a place called Isford Radio,
02:12 as well as solar panels in the settlement itself.
02:15 The projects are now in the test phase.
02:18 Polar night in winter changes to polar day in Svalbard in spring,
02:22 so the solar panels are ideal for the energy transition, says Måns.
02:27 Behind me here you see one of the six solar facilities we have built in the last years in Longyearbyen.
02:35 It's on the building called Polarcentre. It's a combined hotel and office building.
02:39 We have put solar panels on almost all of the roof. It's a curved roof. It's quite cool, actually.
02:45 Svalbard has a special status, enshrined in a treaty from 1920.
02:50 Along with Norway, Russia is also a player in Svalbard,
02:54 through the Akte Kugel Trust in the Russian enclave of Barentsburg.
02:58 The Russians, unlike the Norwegians, plan to continue developing their mines,
03:02 although coal production will decline there as well.
03:05 At the moment, they are producing 120,000 tons per year,
03:10 and by the end of 2032, coal mining in the archipelago as a whole should be reduced to 40,000 tons.
03:17 But, according to the representatives of the Norwegian State Energy Company,
03:21 there are no discussions with the Russians about developing renewable replacements.
03:26 [wind]
03:30 [silence]
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