District Energy in Norway

Country Profiles
15 November 2019

The national heat market is estimated at about 53 TWh/ 180 PJ in 2017. The district heating and cooling market accounts for about 12% of the heat market. There are several requirements for using renewable and CO₂ neutral resources in the DH system in Norway. Fossil fuel is used only for the peak load, and has decreased every year. Growth of DHC has been slow, due to warm winters in recent years and the surplus electricity from hydropower (renewable), resulting in low electricity prices. Renewable electricity represents about 66% of the heat market.

Direct electrical heating will always be dominant for space heating and hot water heating in the residential sector. The rate of uptake of waterborne systems in new and refurbished buildings is slow. Competition between HP and electrical heating in the market for individual houses. In the services sector, use of electricity for heating is about 50%. A new energy labelling system will ease the market situation for DHC.

District cooling expanded by 17% from 2012 to 2013, by 8% from 2013 to 2015 and totalled 173 GWh in 2017. It is a supply for the service sector, uncertain for the residential sector, but possible with requirements for passive houses and nearly zero energy houses from 2020.

The only traditional CHP company is Longyear Bydrift on Svalbard, with a coalfired power plant. Electricity generation has decreased from 50 GWh el and 70 GWh heat in 2013 to 36 GWh el and 62 GWh heat in 2017. The Parliament has voted to replace coal by renewable resources before 2038, and to close down the coal mines and the power plant.

If you would like to learn more, you can purchase the latest Country by Country Survey.

Norway is also involved in our #DHCities?️ initiative:

For more information on the impact of district energy at a local level, explore our #DHCities?️ map, featuring DHC decarbonisation success stories from over 35 European cities: euroheat.org/map

Useful links:

Norwegian District Heating Association (Norsk Fjernvarme)