Norwegian Government Likely to Receive Marching Orders on Local Electricity Production

The Storting will probably give the government marching orders on local electricity production.

A proposal from the Green Party undermines the organization of Norwegian power production.

If the proposal goes through, all small and large companies can produce a lot, or as much as they can manage, from, for example, solar cells on the roof. For anyone with large roof areas available, it should be easy to sell the surplus from electricity production into the electricity grid.

In order to succeed in this, the MDG will remove regulations and change the legislation for who and how electricity can be produced.

Aftenposten has spoken to committee members in the Storting’s energy and environment committee from the Conservative Party, SV, FRP and Liberal Party. All support all or part of the proposal for the MDGs. If this continues all the way to the Storting, the government must deliver the goods at what the Storting asks for.

The politicians behind the proposal predict one «boom» on solar cells on commercial buildings in the future.

Sharpened proposal

MDG points to several regulatory obstacles for this type of power production. The main problem has been that you have to apply for a license to become a power producer if you install a plant of more than 100 kilowatts, which corresponds to approximately five rooftops with solar cells. In practice, this has made it expensive and impractical to produce a lot of electricity for companies.

Many buildings can have space for large solar systems, but use very little energy themselves. Nor can more than five wind turbines be installed without requiring a licence. This also stops smaller wind turbines, which can be installed space-efficiently on industrial sites.

The consequence is that Norway produces less energy than it could have done, according to the proposal.

According to a report from the Solar Energy Cluster, it is theoretically possible to produce 23 terawatt hours from solar power only on Norwegian industrial buildings.

By comparison, Norway’s 1,761 hydropower plants produced 137 terawatt hours last year. The Norwegian wind farms produced 17.

Disagreements

Some changes have been made to the committee since the original proposal was presented. The Conservative Party wants, among other things, that there is no upper limit on how much electricity can be delivered to the grid from such production. SV wants the ambition in the proposal to be raised so that the government has a target of producing at least 10 terawatt hours of local energy by 2030.

MDG welcomes the tightening.

FRP is uncertain about the part of the proposal that deals with wind turbines. Red are fundamentally opposed to onshore wind power.

– A need

In a research report that Aftenposten has written about, it emerges that Sweden and Denmark are far ahead of Norway in producing energy on a small scale. The Swedes and Danes have over a thousand such initiatives, while Norway only has 30.

The Swedes also believe that the level of conflict in the development of wind power, for example, will be lower when citizens can buy into the projects.

Representative from MDG, Rasmus Hansson, who is one of the proposers, is happy that they get a majority for a “obviously sensible proposal”.

– The need is there, the users are there and the suppliers are there. Everything is ready. Here it’s just a matter of getting started, says Hansson.

Rasmus Hanson

The MDG politician wants us to produce more energy in already developed areas such as commercial and factory areas.

The party also believes that investing in the development of small-scale solar and wind power combined with offshore wind will mean that there is no need to use more of the untouched nature for energy purposes.

Bård Ludvig Thorheim from the Right is also positive.

– This has become a mature technology. It is time to remove the administrative obstacles. The market is there, and with high electricity prices this is interesting for companies, says Thorheim, who sits on the energy and environment committee.

Good for businesses

Lars Haltbrekken in SV says that the proposal for the MDGs in its original form was not ambitious enough. He wants the government to commit to producing ten terawatt hours of energy.

– Climate change is so serious that we must have greater ambitions than what the MDGs advocate, says Haltbrekken.

Lars Haltbrekken

The Sv politician is positive, but wants the proposal to be tightened.

If you open up, the production will also come by itself, Haltbrekken believes.

– It will be an easy way to bring in money for the companies and an extra leg to stand on financially. If we remove the regulations, this will happen, says Haltbrekken.

The matter will come up in the Storting on 5 June, but will be decided in the committee on 25 May.