Norway’s Race To Electrify Economy Sends Power Use To Record High 

Norway’s push to become the first fully electric society by 2050 has resulted in the country’s government ministers recently announcing the sales of combustion engine cars will be phased out by 2025. The Scandinavian country, home to five million people, has been the world leader in the adoption of electric vehicles. There are more than 10,000 charging stations throughout the country. But the push towards a green society comes at a cost as energy demand this week surged to record highs. 

Bloomberg data shows between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m on Thursday morning, Norwegian consumers used 25,146-megawatt-hours (MWh), or the same amount of power as its neighbor Sweden who has twice as many residents. The spike in energy demand (mainly from electric cars and 85% of all indoor spaces powered by electric heat) is due to an ongoing cold spell, outpacing domestic production. 

Power grid manager Statnett told Bloomberg that frigid temperatures in Norway, something we pointed out last month, led to the surge in energy demand. 

“A larger and larger share of the energy consumption is being used as electricity,” Irene Meldal, head of communications at Statnett, said. “More than half of the energy Norwegians use is already in the form of power.”

Norway wants to increase the number of electric cars and its economy’s electrification in the decades ahead. BofA’s equity strategist Haim Israel shows Norway expects to become a net-zero emissions country by 2050.

Norway has set itself an ambitious target in the race for electrification. However, we must point out that increased energy usage means the country must continue building out its infrastructure to handle higher baseload to prevent blackouts. It expects energy consumption to increase by 30% by 2040.