Facts about energy

In the period from 1990 the use of energy has become more efficient in manufacturing and households. In households this is due to more energy effective electrical equipment and also because of installation of heat pumps. Increased use of energy has especially taken place in transport, up 40 per cent from 1990 to 2011.

Electricity is the far most important energy product in inland consumption. In households and in service industries the share of electricity is about 77 per cent, while it is about 60 per cent in manufacturing. Biofuels amount to 6-7 per cent of energy use in Norway, this is mainly fire wood used in households and biomass used in manufacturing industries. The total consumption of electricity has shown a strong growth from 1930 and up to the end of the century. The average yearly growth rate was 5.3 per cent up to 1960, rose to 6.9 per cent in the 1960’s and was reduced to 4.3 per cent in the 1970’s. In the 1980’s and 1990’s the growth rate in the use of electricity was reduced to an average yearly rate of 1.8 per cent. Norway is the country in the world with the highest consumption of electricity for domestic purposes, with a yearly average of 16 000-18 000 kWh per household. Energy use for stationary purposes, that is not included energy use for transport and non-energy purposes, added up to about 70 per cent of total inland energy consumption in 2011. In this stationary use the share of electricity is approximately 70 per cent. For petroleum products the share has steadily been reduced, while electricity and district heating have increased their shares.

Electricity production is in Norway mainly based on hydro power. Heat and wind based production has shown higher grow rates during the last years, but did not add up to more than 5 per cent of electricity production in 2011, with 4 per cent coming from heat and 1 per cent from wind power generation.

Energy legislation that entered into force in 1991 liberalized the Norwegian electricity market. In the period following the liberalization, Norway has had a net export in 13 years and a net import in 8 years. Total net export in the period 1991-2011 was 57 TWh. In the period 1960-1990 Norway had net export in 28 years and net import in 3 years.

While processes in manufacturing was the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in the period from 1990 to 2007, emissions from oil and gas extraction has been the main source in the last years. Emissions from manufacturing were reduced by 38 per cent from 1990 to 2011.

The statistics in this publication are based on the energy balance published by Statistics Norway, see www.ssb.no/energiregn_en/ for information on definitions and principles.