May

12

Oil powered Norway gradually turns into the wind

Filed Under General | Posted By Jennifer Sullivan |

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norway.jpgWhile Norway prepares for a future after oil, the gale-force potential of harvesting wind power off its extended coastline has turn into an increasingly striking proposition.

“Wind-mapping demonstrates that Norway is one among the (world’s) most ideal locations for wind power, both on the coast and offshore,” stated Norwegian Deputy Petroleum and Energy Minister Liv Monica Stubholdt.

Yet the Scandinavian country, one of the world’s leading oil and gas exporters, nowadays lags far behind others in taking benefit of this natural resource.

Norway has 15 wind parks, producing a little less than one percent of its electricity, and environmentalists and industry players complain Oslo has done little to encourage what is considered one of the “greenest” energy sources.

“The government should have the courage to spend much more to advance wind than they do,” Ane Brunvoll, a renewable energy expert with Norwegian environmental group Bellona, said AFP.

There are signs of alteration, however, as concerns over falling oil reserves and global warming become more prominent, with some 150 new installations either authorised or are waiting for permits.

Companies are also racing to extend new technology making it possible to place monster wind turbines out at sea where winds are stronger and there are only some people to complain regarding noise levels and obstructed views.

“The government’s goal is to develop into a net exporter of renewables and that can never take place if we do not develop” strong wind-powered sources, Deputy Minister Stubholdt told, adding the government was exploring whether wind production “blocks” could be licensed off in much the same way as North Sea oil blocs are at present.

“We have superb wind conditions here, with a steady and very even breeze that allows for very high wind power output,” he described on an ironically calm day.

The island’s two wind turbines, towering 40 metres (130 feet) in the air on a small hill overlooking several red-painted wooden houses, produce more energy than the small community can make use of.

The windmills that are less than half the size of the prime models are also part of the world’s first full-scale system for converting wind power into hydrogen.

“This system allows us to deliver power with predictable quality and reliability (and) the only emission is oxygen,” stated Halgeir Oeya, who heads up the hydrogen technology unit at Norwegian energy giant StatoilHydro, which is running the test project.

However, the energy produced here are very costly and it will take “a number of years” before the technology can be scaled up enough to actually make money, Oeya acknowledged.

Holding more financial promise are perhaps two deepwater floating wind turbine demonstration projects to be built near Utsira over the next two years using technology similar to that of floating oil and gas platforms.

“Offshore makes sense in a way. It is our area of competence,” stated Jan Fredrik Stadaas, the head of project development at StatoilHydro’s New Energy Wind division that is behind one of the demo projects.

The similar sized wind turbine can produce double the amount of power out at sea as on land, he stated, adding that the requirement for more robust technology to resist maritime weather conditions however drove up costs.

StatoilHydro, which one day hopes to build a park of giant turbines able of floating in depths of up to 170 metres and each one capable of providing power for 1,000 homes, says such deepwater wind farms are yet years off.

Both the industry and environmentalists say Norway’s government should do more to help get the latest projects up and running.

“This is a very capital intensive industry … You require price and incentive plans to make it profitable,” Stadaas stated.

Bellona’s Brunvoll, in the meantime explained the government’s investments so far as “farcical,” pointing out that Norway, with its 2,500 kilometre-long coastline, held the theoretical potential to generate 14,000 terawatt hours (TWH) of wind energy a year.

“Of course, we don’t want to fill our complete coast with wind turbines but even a fraction of that would be good,” she stated.

In contrast, Norway, the world’s fifth largest oil and third largest gas exporter, merely produces some 2,300 TWH annually from its petroleum industry, she told.

A major reason for the slow uptake is Norway’s almost unlimited admission to renewable hydro power that at present covers above 99 percent of its domestic energy consumption, Deputy Minister Stubholdt described.

“That may have served to unintentionally slow us down on other renewables,” she stated, but added: “We are working to progress incentives … We require wind to be a much larger part of the energy supply”.



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