Renewable energy production in Norway

Hydropower has been the basis for Norwegian industry and the development of a welfare society since we started utilizing the energy in rivers and waterfalls to produce energy in the late 1800s. Since then, the Norwegian hydropower has become an increasingly important part of the Norwegian society. The usage of electricity has increased in line with the modernisation and economic growth in Norway.

In Norway, 98 percent of all electricity production come from renewable sources. This puts us in a unique position in both a European and global perspective. Electricity production in Norway is for the most part based on flexible hydropower, but both wind and thermal energy contributes to the Norwegian electricity production. In 2013, Norway produced 134 terawatt hours (TWh) electricity. One TWh equals one billion kilowatt hours (kWh). By comparison, the Norwegian capital, Oslo, consumes around nine TWh each year.

Source	Amount (TWh)
Hydropower	129 TWh
Wind power	1,9 TWh
Thermal power	3,3 TWh
Total	134 TWh

The dominant role of hydropower in the electricity production makes sufficient precipitation and inflow to the dams and reservoirs vital. At the same time, having flexibility in the power production makes it possible to both export and import power to or from our neighbouring countries through interconnectors, depending on the demand.

In the last decade, wind power has increasingly become a part of the Norwegian power production. For now, wind is still only a small part of the total output, but the number of wind turbines increases year on year.