Norway Bio-Energy

Introduction

Energy is one of the most important issues on the agendas of states. In addition to realizing energy security and self-sufficiency, exploring further alternative energy sources has become a key subject of the energy talks around the globe. Governments are trying to explore new ways to use their natural resources which are environment friendly as well due to the irreversible damage done to the environment caused by the lengthy and excess use of fossil fuels which has led to increasing carbon emission rates and started to threaten the balance of earth. Therefore, the dire need for producing cleaner and greener energy forms has become a priority all around the world which has made renewable energy resources and their utilization a top issue concerning the energy sector.

Among the renewable energy alternatives, I chose to explore the bioenergy sector since it has come to be acknowledged to possess a great potential to meeting the ever increasing energy demand in the world. In the case of Norway, electricity and oil are used as dominating heating sources which holds one of the major shares of energy use in the country. Therefore, by using alternative sources of heating more than they do today, will contribute significantly to decreasing demand, thus, pressure for increased production of electricity in the future. Consequently, exploring and exhausting different energy sources possesses and important place in realizing the government’s energy objectives as well as the policies made. Moreover, the vision of the Norwegian government is that making Norway a leader in renewable energy and carbon capture and storage in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions released to the atmosphere. Therefore, Norway seeks furthering development in renewable energy sector and has put great emphasis on the unused biomass sources to be utilized for energy production. That is why, I have chosen the bioenergy sector in Norway as the focus of this work.

Literature Review

Renewable energy use has become a growingly important subject due to the damage fossil fuels cause which led to acknowledging the significance of using this type of energy in meeting demand for energy. The European Union is the major entity that pushes further the renewable energy agenda of states by setting targets. It has set target on renewable energy that member states should increase the use of renewable energy to 20% by 2020. Bioenergy will play a vital role in realizing this objective along with greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2020. Moreover, biomass is expected to cover at least 14% of EU’s energy. This is the trend concerning renewable energy in Europe which has influenced the Nordic countries that are already conscious on the matter concerned.

Norway, as mentioned, aims at becoming the leader of renewable energy in the world. Moreover, it acknowledges the fact that utilizing bioenergy resources shows great promise for increasing demand of energy along with the potential of fulfilling a considerable part of the global energy demand in question. The former Minister of Petroleum and Energy of Norway, Odd Roger Enoksen, in “Bioenergy 2005” stated that bioenergy could be an important alternative in a future and more sustainable energy supply. On the International Energy Agency’s bioenergy webpage we could read that resources such as forestry and agriculture crops, biomass residues and wastes already provide about 14% of the world's primary energy supplies. Further we could read that bioenergy offers cost-effective and sustainable opportunities with the potential to meet 50% of world energy demands during the next century and at the same time meet the requirement of reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuels.^[1]