Terje Aasland (Ap) wants wind power

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A new price record was set in southern Norway this week, with prices exceeding six kronor per kilowatt hour. At the same time, NVE has at least eight wind applications that have been shelved because municipalities don’t want them.

These projects could have eased the pressure on prices if they had been made, several analysts tell E24.

Aasland asked municipalities to contribute:

– We can’t live with similar situations every year, ha Aasland told VG, and asks the municipalities themselves to indicate suitable areas for wind energy.

Last year, wind power was responsible for 9% of Norway’s total energy production. With some wind farms still under development, wind power could soon make up Norway’s entire energy surplus today.

– I understand that the question is raised now with the situation we are in, but in the municipality of Bygland we do not want it. We think we have sacrificed enough, says Bygland Mayor Sigbjørn Aas Fossland (Ap).

The VG spoke to four of the mayors of the municipalities who say “no”.

A cent per kilowatt hour: – A joke

Instead, there has been a complete disruption in the processing of all wind energy applications since 2019 the level of conflict has skyrocketed.

This spring the energy minister left the door open when he opened projects where municipalities are positive.

Norsk Vind sent plans to NVE for the development of 200 wind turbines spread across three municipalities in Vestland County. “Hordavind” would become Norway’s largest wind farm, but it has been suspended until municipalities say no.

– Why does it have to be built here, if this is not where electricity is to be used? It may not be the case that some municipalities have both wind and hydroelectric power, while others don’t need to see a single line, says Karstein Totland (H), Mayor of Masfjorden.

Municipalities must be paid for the intervention they have to endure, a production fee of one øre per kilowatt hour.

– I’ve always said it’s a joke. A number of actors also saw it in person and put forward their own compensation proposals. But there is little faith in such a system, Totland says.

Hordavind would mean NOK 51 million per year. The money is paid to the state, which must distribute it to the wind farms.

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Labor mayors are calling on the government to increase revenue

The eight major projects now suspended are located in the municipalities where the mayor is in the vast majority of cases from the Labor Party or the Center Party.

All the VG mayors intervened to point out that the government has set the revenues too low, considering the disadvantages.

Bygland would become the host municipality for the Lauvdalsheia wind farm, with an income of NOK 17 million in production taxes.

– This is a project with 90 turbines over a very large area. Natural intervention is not commensurate with what remains in the municipality. We will not return revenue to the municipality as we did with hydroelectricity, Fossland says.

Wind power represented nearly 12 terawatt hours (TWh) of power last year and is expected to increase slightly from some plants still under development. By comparison, Norway’s energy surplus is 15 TWh.

Wind power has shaped city councils

In many municipalities, wind power was the main problem of the 2019 election campaign. This means that in some municipalities there is now an elected city council on a “no to wind” platform.

So also in Bygland.

– This led to increased support for parties that were clearly opposed to wind energy and produced worse results for parties that did not take a stand or were not clear, Fossland says.

He himself went to the polls for “no wind” and became the newly elected mayor.

The municipality of Bygland has not decided to be generally against wind turbines. The other municipalities that VG looked into have it.

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Mayor of Åseral: – He took the life of what it was

– It is clear that it has played a role, that there has been a very poor process with the national wind energy framework plan. She killed what was there, because people were really panicking, says Inger Lise Sund Stulien (Ap), mayor of Åseral, in the middle of Agder County.

She points the NVE map presented in 2019, which should have identified suitable areas for wind energy. In the wake of this, the developers came and proposed a number of projects to the municipalities.

Several reported municipalities have adopted a resolution of the city council in which they asked to be removed from the map. Wind power was not welcome then, and it is not welcome now.

– I support the other mayors that tax revenues are too low. At the same time, it won’t be of great importance to us in Åseral, which has large revenues from hydroelectricity, says Stulien.

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The neighboring municipality, Evje and Hornnes, has also decided a general “no” to wind energy. The mayor Svein Arne Haugen (Ap) sits in the town hall and feels the pressure.

– The decision in principle was made in 2019, at a time when there was massive opposition and everything was turned upside down. There will likely be a new debate now, due to great pressure at the central level, says Haugen.

It doesn’t matter if the current goes abroad

He believes the resistance is softening.

– The government is pushing and wants more energy, environmentalists say “no”, and I think the rest of the population is somewhere in between.

Most of the mayors of the affected municipalities are from the Labor Party and the Center Party. However, Haugen says it is mainly in solidarity with society that he feels the pressure, not from his own party.

– It is obvious to me that we need wind power in Norway, without deciding where it will be located. We need more green energy in the coming years, and wind power is perhaps the fastest way to do this, says Haugen.

– But I don’t know what it takes. Of course, what is left to the municipality is important and that you have the right to co-determine. Then there’s this thing about ownership: it’s not very interesting if the power ends up in German pension funds.

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The government is considering a wind energy tax

The government has listened to the response of the municipalities, says the undersecretary of state at the ministry of oil and energy, Elisabeth Sæther (Ap).

– The government is considering changing the taxation to compensate municipalities for making their nature and land available, says Sæther.

In 2019, the Energy Tax Committee proposed taxing wind power as soon as it became profitable enough.

The Secretary of State cannot answer questions about when this change is expected.

– I can’t say anything for sure about the timing, but changes in taxation are something the government will consider.

– For municipalities who now want to consider wind energy, does that sound uncertain?

– We see the need for municipalities that dispense their nature to receive a larger share of value creation. At the same time, there are other benefits of being a municipality for wind energy, such as property tax and production tax and fixed price agreements that the energy-intensive industry in the municipality can take advantage, says Sæther.

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