The five Nordic countries are not only closely linked in historical background, with similar lifestyles, religions, social and political systems, but also adapt to local conditions, combine their existing conditions and traditional advantages, and drive economic leapfrog development through scientific and technological innovation.
■ Text/Li Chutian Ma Yinglei
Nordic Europe, one of europe's poorest and most backward regions more than 100 years ago, has driven its economy by leaps and bounds through technological innovation. Today, the five Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland) have all entered the ranks of highly developed economies, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $50,000, while Germany, known as the "engine of the European economy", has a per capita GDP of about $42,000. In the current era of great changes in which technological change and industrial revolution shine together, from Sweden's streaming music service Spotify to Finland's famous game "Angry Birds", from Danish wind power equipment all over the world to Icelandic geothermal energy technology that heats the entire country, the Nordic countries have given the Nordic solution of scientific and technological innovation in their own way and understanding of innovation.
The most significant feature of Nordic scientific and technological innovation is that after judging the new trend of future development and selecting the goal of innovation and development, according to local conditions, combined with its own existing conditions and traditional advantages, we gradually carry out innovation activities, and adopt infiltration strategies and small steps to achieve innovation-driven leapfrog development. There, by-products of agroforestry production can be widely used in energy production, a company that produces hydraulic cranes can transform into the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines, geothermal energy under the turbulence of volcanoes can heat the entire country...
Stockholm, the capital of Sweden
Sweden: Both the nordic center and the fortress of global information technology innovation
Located in the heart of Northern Europe, Sweden was historically the heart of viking civilization. The Kingdom of Sweden also dominated the entire Baltic and North Sea coastal areas. Today, it has the largest land area, the largest city, the largest population, the largest economic scale, and the largest global brands in Northern Europe, such as Volvo Cars, Electrolux Home Appliances, IKEA and so on.
In the early 1990s, the Collapse of the Soviet Union and the sudden collapse of Sweden's most important trading partner caused a major shock to the Swedish economy. At the same time, the information revolution is booming and thriving, which makes the Swedish government determined to vigorously develop information technology and build an information technology industry through the integration of industry, education and research, with hardware and software at the same time. Sweden has taken the lead in seizing the opportunity in the information revolution and occupying a favorable position to ensure that its economic and social development continues to maintain a highly developed level.
In terms of hardware of information technology, the Swedish government encourages university research institutions to dig deep into the underlying technology of the information industry, delve into basic science and actively promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and cultivate a number of high-quality hard technology enterprises, such as MEMS chip foundry Silex. MEMS refers to mechatronic systems, that is, complex mechatronic structures with practical functions that are made in microns or even nanoscales. This chip is currently widely used in consumer electronics, automotive electronics, industrial electronics, avionics and other fields. Silex has been one of the world's few independently operated pure MEMS chip foundries for more than 20 years, providing high-quality customized services for more than 80 customers around the world, and has always been committed to developing long-term cooperative relations with customers. The MEMS chips manufactured by it are widely used in many important fields such as consumer electronics, industrial manufacturing, life and health, and communications.
In the field of Internet communication equipment, Sweden has the only root server system in the entire European continent. The root server is used to manage the home directory of the entire Internet system, and the top-level domain name resolution is done by the root server. In layman's terms, all URLs in the world are extended from the root server. Therefore, root servers are essential for the safe operation of the Internet and are the central nervous system of Internet communications and the strategic infrastructure of the International Internet. Under the existing Domain Name System (DNS) protocol, based on the IPv4 address structure, there are only 13 root servers in the world, of which one root server with the number I-ROOT is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Since its commissioning in 2000, the root server has been managed by operator Netnod (an Internet interaction node founded by the Swedish University Computer Technology Innovation Network).
With the support of hardware systems and critical infrastructure, the development of software applications on top of this has great advantages and convenient conditions. Sweden is once again at the forefront of the world when it comes to software and application development. The most famous Swedish Internet manufacturer in the mobile Internet era is undoubtedly Spotify, the world's largest Internet streaming music service provider. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company strives to become the world's largest and highest quality provider of auditory content. As of 2019, audio content (mainly music) on Spotify has exceeded 15 billion hours, and the number of highest-level paid members has exceeded 120 million. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on April 3, 2018, with a total market capitalization of more than $48 billion.
Norway
Norway: an industrial agglomeration area with a high flame for warming in groups for warmth and firewood
Norway, a small country in northern Europe, has more than 2,500 kilometres of coastline. Salmon used to be the most important pillar of the country's export earnings. After the discovery of oil and gas in the North Sea in the 1960s and 1970s, the country staged a story of "overnight riches", from Poland and Czechoslovakia, whose per capita income ranked at the tail end of Western Europe and even lower than the Eastern Bloc, to today's per capita GDP of more than $80,000, making it one of the richest countries in the world.
Eat the sea by the sea, and prosper because of the sea. Along Norway's long coastline, each region has established more than 20 distinctive industrial clusters according to its own advantages and traditions (on average, there is 1 per 100 km of coastline), most of which belong to the category of pan-marine industries, including shipbuilding, offshore equipment, deep-sea aquaculture, etc. Almost all of Norway's world-leading high-tech achievements have rich application scenarios in these industrial agglomeration areas. At the same time, a considerable number of technology companies are also carrying out major business in these clusters. The core feature of the industrial agglomeration area is the high-density aggregation of knowledge and know-how in the specific subdivision neighborhood, that is, a large number of highly specialized teams in related fields carry out high-intensity innovation and entrepreneurship activities in specific subdivision tracks, compete with each other and cooperate with each other, and jointly strengthen and expand the characteristic industries of the agglomeration area in a virtuous circle. In the process, a number of companies have emerged as global leaders in the field.
Many of Norway's industrial agglomerations arise from small cities with leading companies in niche areas. These leading enterprises often have strong competitiveness and high professionalism on their own tracks, gradually attracting relevant upstream and downstream industries to cooperate with them, and attracting many high-tech teams to upgrade and transform their technology. Over time, the advantages of industrial agglomeration have gradually enlarged, more and more innovations, and more and more developed productivity. For example, the small town of Ulstein Vik, with a population of only about 6,000 people, has a shipbuilding and marine equipment industry cluster centered on the century-old shipbuilding company Ulstein. Ulstein is mainly engaged in shipbuilding, ship design, overall solution provision, ship after-sales service, upgrading and other services. In the field of shipbuilding, its design and construction of offshore wind power installation vessels is quite popular all over the world, not only has the ability to work in extremely cold ice floes, but also uses new energy technologies such as hydrogen energy, fuel oil and hydrogen fuel cell hybrid technology, which greatly improves environmental protection capabilities and saves fuel. At present, Ulstein has become the designated partner of many well-known European offshore wind turbine manufacturers such as Siemens. More importantly, with Ulstein as the core, a number of deep technology enterprises related to shipbuilding, offshore engineering and new energy have gathered in the local area. While supporting Ulstein's growth, they are also promoting their technology to the world through the leading company's business network. For example, Ulstein's new offshore wind installation vessel J102 works closely with local hydrogen technology companies to integrate a large number of technical routes that have been relatively mature in liquid hydrogen storage and filling technology and hydrogen fuel cell technology products into this installation vessel, making it a highly practical new energy vessel, greatly improving the current status quo of wind power installation vessels that are almost all powered by fossil fuels. At the same time, through deepening follow-up cooperation, the company has reserved space and developed an iterative plan for the future use of more new energy technologies for this type of vessel, including the technical solution of all-electric propulsion. The local industry has also evolved with the transformation and upgrading of Ulstein, and its innovation ability in related fields has even reached the forefront of the world.
Helsinki, the capital of Finland
Finland: First there are universities, then there is Finland
Finland, which finally broke free from the rule of Tsarist Russia in 1919, has been independent for more than 100 years, from that poor and backward extremely cold place to today with a highly complete social welfare, a high level of education system (ranking in the world's top three in UNESCO's world rankings for many years) and a highly innovative national innovation index (ranked in the top five in the world). This legend of change of fortune began in Jyväskylä, a historical and cultural city in south-central Finland. It was once proudly called the "Athens of Finland" by Finns, as the Jyväskylä University, founded in 1858, was the world's first Finnish-speaking university. The university stimulated Finnish national consciousness and opened the prelude to Finnish national independence and national development. Since independence, finland has attached great importance to the construction and development of universities in society, and the concept of "first there is a university, then There is Finland" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Finland has a population of just over 5 million, but it has 21 universities, one in almost every major city. High-tech industrial parks across Finland are often closely integrated with local universities, and the strong disciplines of universities have become the key directions for the development of local high-tech industries. On the one hand, the scientific research team from the university has become the original source of innovation for the local high-tech industry, on the other hand, it has vigorously promoted the local traditional industries, so as to truly realize the deep integration of Finland's traditional advantageous industries such as machinery manufacturing, metallurgical processing, shipbuilding, forestry and modern communications, information technology, integrated circuits, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and other emerging industries, that is, to take the road of integrated development of "informatization to enhance industrialization, industrialization to support informatization".
The Finnish National Centre for Technology Research (VTT), funded by the government, is dedicated to the transformation and commercialization of scientific research to promote economic and social progress. One of its priorities is to connect universities and research institutions focused on basic research with high-tech companies responsible for product commercialization. VTT-funded projects have very strict requirements for industry-university-research cooperation, and in most cases, enterprise projects must find universities as partners to receive funding from VTT. For decades, VTT has helped transform the scientific and technological achievements of many universities into tangible productivity and economic benefits.
For example, the University of Helsinki and Aalto University in the Helsinki region of Finland have established a university science park based on VTT, and have brought together a large number of innovative and entrepreneurial teams from universities as a hub, some of which have become legends that have attracted worldwide attention. Linus Benedict Torvalds, the founder of the operating system Linux, is from the University of Helsinki, and the project was also an innovative project inspired by a fortuitous factor in school. When The first kernel of Linux first took shape, Torvalds was 21 years old. Although the system has not been able to generate direct profits because it is open source and free, Linux's huge role in promoting the world's information technology industry is obvious to all. Aalto University gave birth to Rovio, an entertainment media company familiar to game lovers around the world, which created the famous casual puzzle game "Angry Birds". Rovio's headquarters are located across the road from Aalto University, and its founding team is almost entirely from Aalto University, most of whom were still students at the time.
Geothermal power plant in Iceland
Iceland: Adapting to local conditions, new energy drives innovative development
Iceland is one of the very few countries in the world where electricity is produced entirely from renewable sources, and a very few countries where heat supply is supplied almost entirely by renewable sources. Iceland is located at the junction of the Eurasian Plate and the American Plate, and due to the frequent volcanic activity at the junction of the plates, the entire country is basically located in active volcanic areas, and most of the land is formed by the continuous deposition of magma that rushes out of the sea surface after the sea surface cools. The special geological structure and active crustal movement have brought Iceland rich geothermal resources. Today, nearly 95% of the heat supply in Iceland comes from geothermal heat, and gradually develop a more complete four-step geothermal use method. The first stage of geothermal heat has the highest calorific value and is used to generate electricity. Nearly 30% of Iceland's electricity is provided by geothermal energy, and there are a total of 7 geothermal power stations in the country. The second level of heat energy after a slight cooling is used for house heating, hot water supply and snow melting. After the heat continues to be consumed, the third level of heat energy can provide heat energy for swimming pools, ponds, and artificial lakes. The country's famous attraction, Blue Lake Hot Springs, is a natural lagoon formed by the geothermal tailwaters of a nearby geothermal power plant. It can be said that geothermal resources provide a lot of resources for leisure and tourism in Iceland. In 2019, Iceland received more than 8 million foreign tourists a year, compared to the country's population of just 350,000. After the heat is further dissipated, it can continue to be used, and the fourth level of heat energy is mainly used for green vegetable greenhouses and geothermal water fish farming. Due to the cold and extreme climate, Iceland's arable land area is only 1% of the total land area, and grain, vegetables and fruits were once heavily dependent on imports. In 1924, with the support of the government, local residents began to try to use geothermal heat for vegetable and fruit cultivation in greenhouses (glass sealed). In the 21st century, Iceland began to apply various sensors and Internet of Things technology to monitor and regulate the temperature, humidity and various nutrients of the soil in the shed online, while introducing electric lighting to prolong the growth period of plants, and continuously optimizing the planting and cultivation program through high-tech means such as artificial intelligence and big data to improve the yield and quality of agricultural products. Currently, greenhouse-grown tomatoes and cucumbers meet 70% of the demand of Iceland's domestic market. In addition, because of the hot water in fish farming, the growth cycle of winter nursery seedlings has been greatly reduced, and the yield has increased significantly. There are now more than 50 hot water fish hatcheries in Iceland, with more than 4 000 tonnes of fish reared annually and more than 2 million tonnes of fish caught, making Iceland the highest per capita fishing stock in the world.
Iceland has vigorously developed its new energy industry in accordance with its own geographical and climatic conditions, significantly reduced energy prices, and built a good infrastructure for economic development. At the same time, geothermal energy has laid a decisive foundation for the innovative development of Agriculture and Fisheries in Iceland and has created a large number of tourism resources for the country. In short, innovative development in the field of energy and innovative application of new energy technologies have played an irreplaceable role in the process of Iceland's economic take-off.
Offshore wind power generation in Denmark
Denmark: Wind power and biotechnology that can be applied to power generation
Denmark, located between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, the whole country seems to be cut by these two oceans into a bunch of large and small islands and peninsulas. The harsh climate brings high-quality wind energy resources here. In 1970, the world oil crisis broke out, which soon hit a country whose energy structure was heavily dependent on oil and natural gas. Determined to accelerate the pace of energy transformation, the Danes are determined to accelerate the pace of energy transformation, and from the perspective of independent and controllable energy supply, the strategy of developing wind energy according to local conditions is soon placed high hopes.
The so-called opportunities are left to those who are prepared, when Vestas, the world's leading manufacturer of hydraulic cranes, preemptively reserved talents and technology. Beginning in 1971, Vestas selected innovative and team-minded employees from the existing talent to develop and test in the secretly created fan department, and in 1978 successfully recruited two technicians who had already developed prototype wind turbine blades but did not have the strength to mass produce them. Over the next year, Vestas completed the final production, first sale and installation of the fan. The blades of the first turbine are 10 meters long and have an installed capacity of 30 kilowatts. Today, Vestas is the world's largest producer of wind turbines, with products in 85 countries around the world, with a total installed capacity of more than 145 GW and a cumulative reduction of about 15 billion tons of CO2 emissions. Vestas made the most magnificent turn in his more than 100-year history in the crisis, both unexpectedly and reasonably. Because the important components of the fan rotor, gearbox and tower are essentially mechanical equipment, its quality and advanced degree are largely determined by the level of machining of the enterprise, and Vestas has been working in this field for nearly 70 years before producing fans. The core technologies of Vestas at that time, such as hydraulic technology, gearbox technology and valve technology in hydraulic cranes, were also key technologies in the fan. In addition, the two technicians who play a key role in the development of wind turbines are also from the machining industry where Vestas is located, and they have long been familiar with Vestas' strength, so they will take the initiative to seek help and cooperation.
In 2020, Denmark will generate half of the country's wind power generation, ranking first in the world and far ahead of Ireland, the second largest in the world (wind power accounts for 28% of the country's electricity generation). In 2020, Danish exports of wind power technologies and services will exceed €9 billion. 1 in 20 people in Denmark is directly employed in the wind power industry.
However, the most concerned new energy source in Denmark is not wind energy, but biomass energy, which has a deep connection with agriculture. Currently, 30% of Danish energy consumption comes from renewable sources, and 70% of this comes from biomass. At the same time, half of Denmark's heating supply is provided by biomass. Common biomass energy includes wood chips, straw, straw, animal manure, biogas from saprophytic leaves, and biomethanol extracted from food crops such as corn. These raw materials can be found in the production process of agriculture and forestry. The reason why biomass energy can become a key link in the green transformation of the Danish economy is mainly because it has two obvious advantages: one is that compared with renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy, the output of biomass energy is more stable, and the reliability of energy supply is higher; second, because biomass energy is still through the heat energy generated by combustion for various types of energy conversion, and the matching with existing energy production equipment is better than that of other renewable energy sources, which can match the existing energy production and consumption scenarios and quickly penetrate the market. In Denmark, for example, in recent years, the combustion facilities of the former coal-fired combined heat and power plants have been retrofitted to be burned using wood-pellet fuel. Currently, the vast majority of combined heat and power plants in Denmark use this fuel.
In addition, in the production of biofuels, Danish energy company Steeper Energy is deeply involved in the bio-oil track, and its products are extracted from poplars, seaweeds and miscanthus, with an oil yield of about 50% and carbon dioxide emissions 80% lower than fossil fuels.
Li Chutian, marketing manager of Shanghai Xinwei Technology Group Co., Ltd., has studied and lived in the United Kingdom, France and Germany, and is proficient in English, French and German, and is familiar with the situation in Europe.
Yinglei Ma, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Xinwei Technology Development Co., Ltd., Senior Engineer in the Field of MEMS Sensors, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Materials Science, Fudan University.