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The political feasibility of Norway as the ‘green battery’ of Europe

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  • Gullberg, Anne Therese

Abstract

Norway has great potential for producing pumped-storage hydropower, and the European Union (EU) hope Norway can contribute to Europe's transition to a renewable energy system by serving as a ‘green battery’. This is certainly technically feasible. However, this paper asks whether the green battery idea is politically feasible. The paper analyses four scenarios, three of which Norway serves as a green battery and one domestic. It focuses on decision-makers' and interest groups' positions on new interconnectors from Norway to continental Europe and the United Kingdom (UK), pumped-storage hydropower, and new renewable energy production in Norway. The paper argues that the present policy is characterised by incremental change—decisions about new interconnectors are made on an individual basis. Moreover the paper argues there is little reason to believe that this status quo policy will change based on any of the green battery scenarios in the near term. Still, decision-makers and interest groups are positive, in principle, towards new interconnectors and pumped-storage hydropower. Hence, Norway might become a green battery in the longer term. In the short term, however, a politically feasible contribution from Norway is balancing power through already existing hydropower capacity.

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  • Gullberg, Anne Therese, 2013. "The political feasibility of Norway as the ‘green battery’ of Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 615-623.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:57:y:2013:i:c:p:615-623
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.02.037
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    1. Soha, Tamás & Munkácsy, Béla & Harmat, Ádám & Csontos, Csaba & Horváth, Gergely & Tamás, László & Csüllög, Gábor & Daróczi, Henriett & Sáfián, Fanni & Szabó, Mária, 2017. "GIS-based assessment of the opportunities for small-scale pumped hydro energy storage in middle-mountain areas focusing on artificial landscape features," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1363-1373.
    2. Hagos, Dejene Assefa & Gebremedhin, Alemayehu & Zethraeus, Björn, 2014. "Towards a flexible energy system – A case study for Inland Norway," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 41-50.
    3. Oseni, Musiliu O. & Pollitt, Michael G., 2016. "The promotion of regional integration of electricity markets: Lessons for developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 628-638.
    4. Gawel, Erik & Strunz, Sebastian & Lehmann, Paul, 2014. "Wie viel Europa braucht die Energiewende?," UFZ Discussion Papers 4/2014, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    5. Haley, Brendan, 2014. "Promoting low-carbon transitions from a two-world regime: Hydro and wind in Québec, Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 777-788.
    6. Baptiste François & Sara Martino & Lena S. Tøfte & Benoit Hingray & Birger Mo & Jean-Dominique Creutin, 2017. "Effects of Increased Wind Power Generation on Mid-Norway’s Energy Balance under Climate Change: A Market Based Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Hilden, Mikael & Huuki, Hannu & Kivisaari, Visa & Kopsakangas-Savolainen, Maria, 2018. "The importance of transnational impacts of climate change in a power market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 418-425.
    8. Gullberg, Anne Therese & Ohlhorst, Dörte & Schreurs, Miranda, 2014. "Towards a low carbon energy future – Renewable energy cooperation between Germany and Norway," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 216-222.
    9. Vakulchuk, Roman & Overland, Indra & Scholten, Daniel, 2020. "Renewable energy and geopolitics: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Scholten, Daniel & Bosman, Rick, 2016. "The geopolitics of renewables; exploring the political implications of renewable energy systems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 273-283.
    11. Sebastian Strunz, Erik Gawel, and Paul Lehmann, 2015. "Towards a general Europeanization of EU Member States energy policies?," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    12. Gaigalis, Vygandas & Skema, Romualdas, 2014. "Sustainable economy development and transition of fuel and energy in Lithuania after integration into the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 719-733.
    13. Steen, Markus & Weaver, Tyson, 2017. "Incumbents’ diversification and cross-sectorial energy industry dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1071-1086.
    14. Farkhod Aminjonov, 2020. "Policy Innovations and Rationale for Sustainable Energy Transition in the UAE," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2398-2412, December.
    15. Ceglarz, Andrzej & Beneking, Andreas & Ellenbeck, Saskia & Battaglini, Antonella, 2017. "Understanding the role of trust in power line development projects: Evidence from two case studies in Norway," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 570-580.
    16. Askeland, Kristine & Bozhkova, Kristina N. & Sorknæs, Peter, 2019. "Balancing Europe: Can district heating affect the flexibility potential of Norwegian hydropower resources?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 646-656.

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