3 ms·

Norway has been generating substantially more than 100% of their electricity demand from green sources (hydropower) for many decades. Some of the surplus is exp

Norway has been generating substantially more than 100% of their electricity demand from green sources (hydropower) for many decades. Some of the surplus is exported, but it's only in the past 3-4 years that the export capacity from the south towards Germany and Denmark has increased substantially. So now the prices in the south are approaching those of the neighbouring countries, and everyone is up in arms about how electricity is suddenly expensive and politicians have been introducing subsidies. And politicians and grid operators alike are playing like they didn't know this was going to happen. Already one future export cable has been cancelled.

wikfwikf 4y ago
Arguably this is a populist reaction to a situation which is heavily in Norway's favor. Instead of thinking in terms of 'Danes and Germans taking our electricity', Norwegians should realize that they are able to export an extremely valuable resource, energy storage, to two countries which have lots of wind power and huge storage needs. In fact, as the cost of energy has risen massively in Germany for well-telegraphed reasons, costs have gone up in Norway (despite Norway being able to meet all its own needs with hydro) because the two systems are economically linked. But this means that the potential income from storage/balancing has also gone up massively. They should build more hydro with pumped storage and more export cables. Of course, this means that Norwegian society has to make sure that the benefits flow from those who will make money exporting storage to those who are affected by higher prices. But as a high-trust, wealthy country, the only one to solve the resource curse, they should be capable of doing this. This is what I meant when I said that difficult problems of regulation and resource allocation go along with tech advances in this field.

wikfwikf 4y ago

Arguably this is a populist reaction to a situation which is heavily in Norway's favor. Instead of thinking in terms of 'Danes and Germans taking our electricity', Norwegians should realize that they are able to export an extremely valuable resource, energy storage, to two countries which have lots of wind power and huge storage needs. In fact, as the cost of energy has risen massively in Germany for well-telegraphed reasons, costs have gone up in Norway (despite Norway being able to meet all its own needs with hydro) because the two systems are economically linked. But this means that the potential income from storage/balancing has also gone up massively. They should build more hydro with pumped storage and more export cables. Of course, this means that Norwegian society has to make sure that the benefits flow from those who will make money exporting storage to those who are affected by higher prices. But as a high-trust, wealthy country, the only one to solve the resource curse, they should be capable of doing this. This is what I meant when I said that difficult problems of regulation and resource allocation go along with tech advances in this field.