Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Wind Country Notes

Norway
Norway's electricity production is virtually entirely based on hydropower but as there are physical limitations to new schemes, attention has turned to wind energy, albeit with some major obstacles to overcome (financing, public acceptance, etc.).

Although the country has a tremendously high wind resource, in some remote areas the prohibitively high cost of grid connection would make installation of wind turbines uneconomic. Until 2002 installed capacity was extremely small but during the year two 40 MW projects (on the island of Smøla and near the town of Havøysund, close to the North Cape) became operational, bringing total capacity to 97 MW. Further growth occurred during 2004 and 2005 bringing the total to 270 MW. However, as electricity generated from wind was only about 500 GWh in 2005, it represented a very minor part of the total electricity generation of 138 TWh.

Enova, an enterprise owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy came into operation on 1 January 2002. Its mission is to 'contribute to environmentally sound and rational use and production of energy, relying on financial instruments and incentives to stimulate market actors and mechanisms to achieve national energy policy goals'. One of Enova's goals is to install 3 TWh of wind power by 2010. This target represents approximately
1 000 MW of capacity. By end-2005 Enova had signed contracts for 12 projects totalling approximately 500 MW and 68 MW were under construction. Also by end-2005 there were plans for 8 000 MW wind turbines but it was felt that the price for electricity had not risen to a level high enough to provide the incentive for development.

Following the 2005 general election and the establishment of a new Government, a period of uncertainty regarding the continuance of a green certificate scheme came to an end. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy presented a new support scheme for renewable energy in November 2006 but it will not become effective until 2008. Wind power will receive a feed-in support of 8 Norwegian øre/kWh for 15 years in excess of the marked price (approximately € 10/MWh). For every øre above a marked price of 45 øre, the feed-in will decrease by 0.6 øre.

An indication of the increased drive towards the development of wind power was the formation of the Norwegian Wind Energy Association in April 2006.