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Norway is in a great position, they're world leaders in hydro and their geography makes that a great source of energy. In 2015 Norway's Hydro-electric generatio

Norway is in a great position, they're world leaders in hydro and their geography makes that a great source of energy. In 2015 Norway's Hydro-electric generation accounted for 95.8% of it's electricity generation. Norway accounts for half of Europe's entire hydro reservoir capacity. Meanwhile if demand rises they can also import electricity via the North Sea wind power hub, or from Sweden. That's one of the great things about electric cars in Norway - you're actually going to get electricity from renewable sources.

arcticfox 7y ago
What is the ecological impact of hydro there? In the US PNW we seem to be taking out hydro due to fish rather than putting in new dams, although I haven't followed it closely
- tyfon 7y ago
  Building damns have a huge impact and there have been many fights over them as in Alta [1]. They also have a large CO2 cost [2] when being built as it requires massive amounts of concrete. However they are now built and there is still plenty of capacity so there have been no new major ones built for a long time. There are some smaller privately owned ones being built but not on a big scale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Hydroelectric_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Hydroelectric_Power_Stati... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concre...
atomwaffel 7y ago
> That's one of the great things about electric cars in Norway - you're actually going to get electricity from renewable sources. This is true in a way, but only part of the picture. While virtually all the electricity that is produced in Norway does come from renewable sources, Norwegian energy producers sell a lot of their “guarantees of origin”[1] to energy companies in other European countries, who are then in turn allowed to market their energy as renewable. You can think of these as a kind of “virtual export”: Norway sells its energy to the rest of the continent and receives the “European Attribute Mix” in return. Since it would be pointless and inefficient to physically transfer this energy, virtual certificates are traded instead. Because of this, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate declares the energy consumed in Norway as being 58% fossil, 33% nuclear, and only 9% renewable[2], but Norwegian politicians and energy companies tend to forget this and prefer to emphasise the point that 98% of all energy produced in the country is renewable. Both claims are true, but somewhere someone is getting screwed over. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarantee_of_origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarantee_of_origin [2] https://www.nve.no/energiforsyning/varedeklarasjon/nasjonal-varedeklarasjon-2018/ https://www.nve.no/energiforsyning/varedeklarasjon/nasjonal-... (in Norwegian)

arcticfox 7y ago

What is the ecological impact of hydro there? In the US PNW we seem to be taking out hydro due to fish rather than putting in new dams, although I haven't followed it closely

tyfon 7y ago
Building damns have a huge impact and there have been many fights over them as in Alta [1]. They also have a large CO2 cost [2] when being built as it requires massive amounts of concrete. However they are now built and there is still plenty of capacity so there have been no new major ones built for a long time. There are some smaller privately owned ones being built but not on a big scale. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Hydroelectric_Power_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Hydroelectric_Power_Stati... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concrete https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concre...

atomwaffel 7y ago

> That's one of the great things about electric cars in Norway - you're actually going to get electricity from renewable sources. This is true in a way, but only part of the picture. While virtually all the electricity that is produced in Norway does come from renewable sources, Norwegian energy producers sell a lot of their “guarantees of origin”[1] to energy companies in other European countries, who are then in turn allowed to market their energy as renewable. You can think of these as a kind of “virtual export”: Norway sells its energy to the rest of the continent and receives the “European Attribute Mix” in return. Since it would be pointless and inefficient to physically transfer this energy, virtual certificates are traded instead. Because of this, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate declares the energy consumed in Norway as being 58% fossil, 33% nuclear, and only 9% renewable[2], but Norwegian politicians and energy companies tend to forget this and prefer to emphasise the point that 98% of all energy produced in the country is renewable. Both claims are true, but somewhere someone is getting screwed over. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarantee_of_origin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarantee_of_origin [2] https://www.nve.no/energiforsyning/varedeklarasjon/nasjonal-varedeklarasjon-2018/ https://www.nve.no/energiforsyning/varedeklarasjon/nasjonal-... (in Norwegian)