Friday, 05 November 2021
Author: Selma P. Utonih
According to a report from the Norwegian energy regulator NVE, Norway aims to have an additional 4.1 TWh of wind and hydropower capacity in operation before the end of this year. However, there are delays for some of the planned projects and the commissioning of these may be postponed until 2022.
According to a quarterly report by NVE, 5.5 TWh of new hydro and wind power capacity is under construction of which 4.1 TWh is planned to be in operation before the end of 2021, and the remaining capacities are planned to be completed by 2025.
Wind power will account for 3.7 TWh of the total capacity under construction and the remaining 1.7 TWh will be hydropower. The distribution of new power production by technology is shown in Figure 1 below.
Of the 5.5 TWh power under construction, 0.8 TWh is coming from new turbines installed in still to be completed wind parks at:
Total normal year production from all wind turbines that are operational in Norway is now 14 TWh.
In Q3 of 2021, Norway had 0.4 TWh of new power capacity which was put into operation of which 0.3 TWh was wind power bringing the new power generation total in 2021 to 1.1 TWh.
Installed wind power capacity in the country stood at 4.2 GW at the end of Q3, equating to an average output of 14 TWh. Installed hydropower capacity in Norway last stood at 33.2 GW, equating to a median annual production of around 137 TWh according to NVE data.
In the third quarter of 2021, a total of 32.7 TWh of power was produced in Norway which according to the NVE was 6% less than the same period last year that saw a record high output. However, when compared to the last five years production was 1.4% above average. Wind power accounted for around 7% of the total Norwegian power production.
Domestic consumption remained virtually unchanged in Q3 compared to the previous year totalling 27.5 TWh, NVE said. Supply had in some degree decreased when compared to the previous year attributed to lower than normal precipitation levels and hydro reservoir levels in Norway except in the Northern part of Norway that received better conditions.
This year has also witnessed lower than normal wind speeds with wind production in the Nordic region decreasing by 18% in Q3 of 2021 compared to the norm with Norway having a production decrease of around 33% in August 2021. The tight hydro balance and lower wind production had a bullish impact on prices for GOs in general including Nordic Hydro GOs, lifting prices to more than 1 Euros/MWh in September 2021.
Norway has seen rapid progress in onshore wind power development. According to Wind Europe in 2020, the country added more than 1 500 MW ranking them first in that category in 2020 and third in overall added capacity behind the Netherlands and Germany. However, this year (2021) is expected to be the last year of large additions as the rapid expansion has caused some backlash among locals and new permitting is currently paused.
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