This is how she wants to express solar cells on the roof

Høyre’s Mathilde Tybring-Gjedde believes laws and regulations stop green development. With a new tool, the aim is to gain momentum for solar and wind power locally.

Gray area. No, it is not about the facade of the Munch Museum, but about electricity. Specifically about electricity production on already built-up nature: Roofs on commercial buildings, gravel roofs and disused industry. All of this is gray area.

According to the Conservative Party, this is in a regulatory quagmire. Mathilde Tybring-Gjedde is now launching a proposal which she believes will lead to the development of such power production being faster and more predictable.

– Old-fashioned regulations

The backdrop is quite simple:

• We need (a lot) more power going forward, according to the energy report.
• Developing new power generation in Norway is associated with major conflicts. For example, it hasn’t exactly been quiet around the large wind farms in Norway recently.
• Both water, wind and solar power require large areas. The flora and fauna are the losers.

– We have very old-fashioned regulations, says Tybring-Gjedde.

So old-fashioned, she believes, that the production of «conflict-free power production» completely stops.

– For example, you are not allowed to share electricity from solar cells produced on a roof with your neighbour, which limits profitability. We need a regulatory framework that allows the sharing of electricity and the grid. Now that good battery solutions are available, solar power can also save the state from costly grid developments, says Tybring-Gjedde.

Her goal is to have the proposal included in the Conservative Party’s parliamentary programme.

Norwegian

Aftenposten wrote last year about an overview which showed that over two million people in over 10,000 different projects produce clean, green energy on a small scale around Europe.

We also saw that the Swedes and Danes were well ahead with over 1,000 such projects. Norwegians were far behind with 30 projects.

The Green Party got through a representative proposal in the Storting last spring, the aim of which was to stimulate the large-scale development of small-scale power production. There, the order was that the government should look at targets and measures to promote the development of renewable power on commercial areas, along roads and in other built-up areas.

There, the government was also given a clear message to come up with proposals for solutions to this tangle of sharing electricity across farm and utility numbers.

The government itself also wants more energy to be produced locally.

Great potential

According to a report from the Solar Energy Cluster, which is an industry association for solar energy in Norway, it is theoretically possible to produce 23 terawatt hours (TWh) from solar power only on Norwegian industrial buildings.

By comparison, Norway’s 1,761 hydropower plants produced 137 terawatt hours last year. The Norwegian wind farms produced 17 TWh.

What the Conservative Party is now proposing is to create a map of where this already built-up area is around Norway. In the next phase, the aim is for the map to form the basis for express regulation of these areas for power production.

– Along train lines, old gravel roofs, airports, roads and car parks. There are many opportunities for small-scale power production, but now hardly any licenses are granted. I think it is wise to expand power production close to consumption, says Tybring-Gjedde, who sits on the energy and environment committee in the Storting.

According to Tybring-Gjedde, only regulatory obstacles are stopping a major development for solar energy. As an extra carrot, she wants Enova to be able to support battery solutions for those who bet.

The Green Party’s Rasmus Hansson says Tybring-Gjedde’s proposal joins the series of good proposals on local energy.

– There are still an awful lot of roofs in Norwegian business where there are no solar cells, so there is a long way to go until we are where we should be, says Hansson.