How do we become a zero-emissions society?
With the Paris Agreement, Norway has committed to ”de-carbonize” the Norwegian society, which means in a long term to end the use of fossil energy overall. This task requires great effort from each country, but Norway has a better starting-point than many other countries.
The process of de-carbonizing a country has two main phases. First, the power sector needs to de-carbonize by adapting to an emissions-free power supply. Secondly, the emissions-free power needs to be put to use so that society gradually can be de-carbonized.
In Norway, the first part is already achieved, thanks to hydropower. But in order to reach the goal of a carbon-free society, we need to put this clean energy to use in more energy demanding sectors. For instance are both data storage and the transport sector areas that could use hydropower to a larger extent.
“The green shift” is already happening. Last year, renewable energy passed fossil energy for the first time, and became the world’s biggest energy source. This is in large part due to a great effort for the last few years to develop hydro, wind and solar power.
Did you know that Norway already possesses enough renewable energy to become a low-emissions society? But to accomplish our goal, we need to use hydropower in more areas than today.
Statkraft is spending 1,5 billion NOK on restoring Norwegian power plants every year. The upgrades secure clean, flexible energy for coming generations and constitutes a direct contribution to the green shift.
The hydropower supplies are available, but we need to put the energy to use by electrifying the society. Today, data storage centers with high energy demand are operated by coal plants, but could in fact be operated by hydropower. We’ve already found the plots in Sandefjord and Skien. Imagine Google or Facebook having their data storages in Norway, with servers operated by clean, renewable Norwegian hydropower!
Big cuts in emissions can also be made by electrifying the transport sector. If we switch our diesel-driven ferries with electric vessels, we’ll save huge amounts of CO2. According to a report from DNV GL, electrifying 52 Norwegian ferry lines is equivalent to cutting CO2-emissions from 80.000 cars every year.
Ulla-Førre is called Norway’s power storehouse. The storage possibilities enables us to extract the energy when needed. This production is huge. Ulla-Førre holds alone 7 percent of the capacity of all Norwegian power plants.
Did you know that environmentally friendly energy from wind, water and solar complement each other perfectly? Read more about it.
Curious about the future? Read more about how renewable energy can save emissions in our 2035 scenario.
Statkraft's internal magazine People & Power brings interesting stories about the energy sector and the company's business activities. Some of the feature articles in the magazine are presented here on the Stories web page.
