Green Party proposes large-scale investment in local energy for Norway

The Green Party believes that Norwegian energy production is locked in that “the bigger, the better”. Now the party wants a large-scale investment in local energy.

Aftenposten recently wrote that over two million people in over 10,000 different projects produce clean, green energy.

The overview was only for Europe, and we could see that the Swedes and Danes were well ahead with over 1,000 such projects. Norwegians were far behind with 30 projects.

One example was the wind turbine Elvy, which 720 Swedes jointly own. This ownership model leads to a lower level of conflict when wind power is developed, according to the owners themselves.

The Green Party’s Rasmus Hansson believes there is great untapped potential in such solutions. Why don’t we have more such initiatives already?

Yes, because laws and regulations stop it, according to Hansson.

According to a study carried out for the Solar Energy Cluster, theoretically 23 terawatt-hours can be extracted using solar cells on the roof of commercial buildings alone.

The Energy Commission writes in its report that the current regulations are characterized by threshold values ​​that are adapted to centralized power production. The commission is calling for a comprehensive policy for solar power.

Just before Easter, Hansson and party colleague Lan Marie Berg therefore sent a proposal for one local energy reform to the Storting.

Here they point to several regulatory obstacles for this type of power production. The consequence is that Norway produces less energy than it could have done. To Aftenposten, he describes the current energy system in Norway as old-fashioned.

– The proposal can provide a lot of energy quickly. It will have low construction costs, will not destroy nature and have a much lower level of conflict, says Rasmus Hansson.

Rasmus Hanson

Storting politician for the Green Party and member of the industry committee.

In their proposal, the party points to three contradictory conditions:

• Norway committed itself to taking care of large parts of nature when the UN Nature Convention was signed in 2022.
• The Energy Commission states that Norway must build out 40 terawatt hours by 2030 in order to reach the climate targets.
• The conflicts surrounding wind power are so strong in Norway that no new areas have been announced for wind turbines.

40 terawatt hours is a lot of power. Norway produces today around 156 a year. The wind farms account for 17 of these. Hansson calls for a target of producing 5 terawatt hours through local initiatives by 2030.

Big roofs – lots of power

Hanson and Berg argue that it is unrealistic to achieve these goals as they stand today.

One problem is that today there are regulations which mean that if you produce more than 100,000 kilowatt hours a year, you must apply for a licence. A very large solar cell system on a private house can produce around 10,000 kilowatt hours.

For companies with large roof surfaces, it is different. Here you have room to produce a lot of energy. Several companies that have large roof areas do not necessarily need all the power they can produce themselves. This excess power can also become a good and stable income for the owners.

– Norwegian energy policy has stuck to the belief that “the bigger, the better”, and that if electricity is to be produced, nature must be destroyed. It doesn’t work anymore. While the industry is screaming for more electricity, the government has been blind to the fact that a lot of electricity can be produced right where we are, says Hansson. He highlights houses, commercial areas and areas along roads as examples of places where energy can be produced.

– Democratic energy

In the proposal, Berg and Hansson ask, among other things, that the threshold for when energy production becomes subject to licensing be raised.

They also ask the government to present a plan with targets and measures to promote the development of the production of renewable energy on commercial land, along motorways and other already developed areas.

– Local energy is more democratic energy. It is needed right now, when large wind farms plus high electricity prices have made people much more skeptical of some company expanding their nature and sending the electricity and money elsewhere, says Hansson.