Wind Power Could Make Norway "Europe's Battery"
NORWAY: May 27, 2008
OSLO - Norway could become "Europe's battery" by developing huge sea-based
wind parks costing up to $44 billion by 2025, Norway's Oil and Energy
Minister said on Monday.
Norway's Energy Council, comprising business leaders and officials, said
green exports could help the European Union reach a goal of getting 20
percent of its electricity by 2020 from renewable sources such as wind,
solar, hydro or wave power.
"Norway could be Europe's battery," Oil and Energy Minister Aaslaug Haga
told Reuters after she was handed the report, which will be considered by
the centre-left government in coming months.
"The thinking is that Norway is blessed, is lucky, to have big energy
resources. There is undoubtedly a large potential for wind power," she said.
Norway says it has the longest coastline in Europe, from the North Sea to
the Arctic Barents Sea.
The 30-page report, mapping out a big shift for the world's number 5 oil
exporter, said: "Norway ought to have access to up to 40 terrawatt hours of
renewable energy in 2020-2025, of which about half would come from offshore
wind power."
Sufficient wind parks -- totalling 5,000 to 8,000 megawatts installed
capacity -- would cost between 100 billion Norwegian and 220 billion
Norwegian crowns ($43.89 billion) assuming prices of 20-28 million crowns
per installed megawatt.
The energy would be equivalent to up to about eight nuclear power plants.
Norway pumps about 2.2 million barrels of oil per day -- $44 billion
represents the value of about half a year's output.
WIND, HYDRO
Haga said offshore wind parks -- which would stop on calm days -- could be
supplemented by hydro-power reservoirs which can be turned on and off to
turn them into a battery storing power. Norway has about half Europe's
reservoir capacity.
"We can deliver a product whether the wind is blowing or not," she said.
Haga will meet EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs in Brussels on
Thursday, partly to discuss the report.
It said Norway still needed new laws, competitive subsidies and more
infrastructure. Norway sometimes has problems supplying even its own
electricity needs with its existing hydro-power.
And it said that Denmark, Germany and Britain had done much more to develop
wind power, both on land and in shallow waters. Norway's advantage was wide
experience from deeper offshore oil and gas installations.
StatoilHydro said last week that it will invest $80 million to build the
world's first full-scale floating wind turbine to start up in 2009. Power
from such installations is likely to be more costly than on land.
The report said that Norway would have to agree long-term wind supply
contracts with EU countries, including access to EU subsidies. But Haga also
said: "I don't expect Europe to subsidise Norwegian wind power production."
"It's not a first choice to import power," said Steinar Bysveen, who led the
report. He said EU nations such as Germany might need imports because of a
lack of space to build wind parks at home and plans to phase out nuclear
power.
The Energy Council report said that 40 terrawatt hours of electricity from
wind could cut 20 million tonnes of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions,
blamed for stoking global warming. Norway's 2007 emissions were 55 million
tonnes.
Editing by William Hardy
Story by Alister Doyle
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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