I'm always surprised at what their argument is. "Don't make us invest in cheap renewable energy that will make us independent from other countries". Sure, they export quite a bit, but that makes your economy dependant on external demand. In all other areas the right leaning parties want to sever themselves from outside influence, except when it involves money....
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
40 points (91.7% liked)
Europe
1928 readers
1397 users here now
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in [email protected]. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
I’m always surprised at what their argument is. “Don’t make us invest in cheap renewable energy that will make us independent from other countries”.
Norway?
As I recall, Norway actually uses a very large amount of domestically-generated hydropower, which is inexpensive and renewable.
The last thing I saw people in Norway upset about was complaining about the fact that during the gas crisis, they were being pressured by the EU to sell more hydropower than it was certain that Norway could support to the EU, which was draining their reservoirs. They were worried that they wouldn't have enough water behind their hydroelectric dams during winter, when they use it to drive electrical heating.
kagis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Norway
The electricity sector in Norway relies predominantly on hydroelectricity.[3][4] A significant share of the total electrical production is consumed by national industry.
Average annual hydropower generation capacity in 2019 was around 131 TWh, about 95% of total electricity production.[5]
EDIT:
Norway scrambles to avoid empty hydropower reservoirs this winter
OSLO, July 7 (Reuters) - Norwegian hydropower producers are cutting output in southern Norway this summer to save water for the winter, fearing a looming supply crunch after a prolonged period of dry weather diminished reservoir levels.
There is also concern that hydropower, which accounts for around 90% of Norwegian electricity generation, will continue to be exported to continental Europe.
The reservoirs feeding many of the plants are currently only 59% full, compared with a 20-year median level of 68%, according to data from energy regulator NVE.
In southwestern Norway, where over a third of capacity is located, reservoirs are just 46% full and at their lowest point for at least 20 years.
That was 2022.
It also sounds like they've had a recent extreme domestic electricity price spike (like, 10x the residential rates in the US) in southern Norway related to very large exports to the EU this winter; southern Norway is exporting a great deal of power, but northern Norway doesn't have the transmission capacity to do so.
As a Norwegian, yes this
I’m always surprised at what their argument is. “Don’t make us invest in cheap renewable energy that will make us independent from other countries”.
If you'd bothered to read the article you would have learned that Norway is already at 95% renewable due to their Hydro Power.
The 95% figure isn't actually in the article text; @[email protected] wouldn't have seen it there. I put it in my comment, quoted text with it, but that was from Wikipedia.
I'd remembered past reading and discussion on the topic from /r/Europe on Reddit, where the impact on their hydropower water reserves was something of a sore point for some Norwegians.
I hate typing on my phone and English is not my first language, so I guess the point I was trying to make didn't quite make its way through. Sorry.
The more conservative party left the coalition because they value their "sovereignty" and "independence" and thus don't want to play by the rules of the EU. To me they basically just trade one Dependance for another. They want to still be able to sell their oil to the EU, so they depend on EU's demand for oil, but they don't want to give up some freedoms even though that in turn would bolster their independence in the energy sector (even more local renewable electricity production, improved infrastructure that would be less susceptible to failure, and so on).
It just makes no sense to me. The EU directives are actually quite in line (or could easily be spun into line) with the ideals of traditionally conservative parties. Yet everywhere (not just Norway), those parties HATE renewable energy. And I think it is pretty clear that money is the big factor here...
Also...maybe I'm blind, but nowhere in the article it's mentioned that Norway produces its energy with hydro?
So - which Euro government hasn't collapsed in the last year?
Turkey, Hungary, Belarus, Russia, ...
That's because those tend to more go boom than collapse once their leaders finish their life subscriptions.
Oil drillers when you tell them that they are destroying the planet: leaves government
Virtually all Norwegian oil and gas is exported.
95% of electricity in Norway is hydropower. During the last 10 years gridlines have been connected to central Europe, leading to hydropower being exported, and a subsequent 10x price hike for electricity in southern Norway.
Senterpartiet used to be called the "farmers party" , their policies are about supporting life in the districts, nature, environment and agriculture. And they are fiercely Eurosceptics
The Labour party tends to be more in favour of industry, as well as aligning with EU
This is not about oil, it is about the country's role in the european market for electricity.