Theme - Energy

Key figures:

Around 50 per cent of the end consumption of energy is electricity.

Hydropower accounts for about 98-99 per cent of the total electricity production.

The end consumption of energy in 2008 was about 819 Petajoule (228 TWh), which is 17 per cent more than in 1990.

Extraction of crude oil and gas on the Norwegian continental shelf amounts to more than 90 per cent of the total production of primary energy carriers in Norway.

The gross product from oil and gas production in 2008 amounted to around 24.8 per cent of the GDP in Norway.

Explanation of terms

The consumption and production of energy is often measured in watt hours. If a 40-watt light bulb is lit for an hour, 40 watt hours of electric power is used. The power consumption of a household is normally measured in kilowatt hours (kWh, a thousand watt hours). The energy consumption in Norway is measured in gigawatt hours (GWh, a billion watt hours) or terawatt hours (TWh, a thousand billion watt hours). Joule is another unit of measurement for energy. 1 kWh equates to 3.6 million joule (=3.6 MJ)

Prefixes:
k = kilo = 10³
M = mega = 10⁶
G = giga = 10⁹
T = tera = 10¹²
P = peta = 10¹⁵

Primary energy carriers: Energy produced without raw material input from other energy, for instance coal, crude oil and hydroelectric power.
End consumption of energy: Total energy consumption excluding consumption in the energy sectors, energy that is converted to other energy and energy used as raw material in the manufacturing industry.

Focus on

Energy

Energy can be used for heating, electrical equipment, in manufacturing processes and for transport. The most common types of energy are electricity, crude oil, oil products, natural gas, other gas, steam, coal, coke, district heating and wood/biomass.

The Norwegian nature has a great deal of hydroelectric power, crude oil and natural gas. Norway is one of the largest exporters of crude oil in the world.

Norway has a high share of electricity in its energy consumption. Power consumption per capita is roughly 10 times that of the world average. Reasons for this include extensive power-intensive manufacturing, and the fact that electricity is a more common source of heating than in other countries.

The elelctricity prices has increased considerably since 2000. Norway has traditionally had low electricity prices compared to other countries, but from 2003 the electricity prices for households have been on about the same level as the average price in OECD.

Consumption of: