IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v57y2013icp615-623.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The political feasibility of Norway as the ‘green battery’ of Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Gullberg, Anne Therese

Abstract

Norway has great potential for producing pumped-storage hydropower, and the European Union (EU) hope Norway can contribute to Europe's transition to a renewable energy system by serving as a ‘green battery’. This is certainly technically feasible. However, this paper asks whether the green battery idea is politically feasible. The paper analyses four scenarios, three of which Norway serves as a green battery and one domestic. It focuses on decision-makers' and interest groups' positions on new interconnectors from Norway to continental Europe and the United Kingdom (UK), pumped-storage hydropower, and new renewable energy production in Norway. The paper argues that the present policy is characterised by incremental change—decisions about new interconnectors are made on an individual basis. Moreover the paper argues there is little reason to believe that this status quo policy will change based on any of the green battery scenarios in the near term. Still, decision-makers and interest groups are positive, in principle, towards new interconnectors and pumped-storage hydropower. Hence, Norway might become a green battery in the longer term. In the short term, however, a politically feasible contribution from Norway is balancing power through already existing hydropower capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Gullberg, Anne Therese, 2013. "The political feasibility of Norway as the ‘green battery’ of Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 615-623.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:57:y:2013:i:c:p:615-623
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2013.02.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421513001286
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.02.037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tsebelis, George, 1995. "Decision Making in Political Systems: Veto Players in Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, Multicameralism and Multipartyism," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(3), pages 289-325, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oseni, Musiliu O. & Pollitt, Michael G., 2016. "The promotion of regional integration of electricity markets: Lessons for developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 628-638.
    2. Baptiste François & Sara Martino & Lena S. Tøfte & Benoit Hingray & Birger Mo & Jean-Dominique Creutin, 2017. "Effects of Increased Wind Power Generation on Mid-Norway’s Energy Balance under Climate Change: A Market Based Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Hilden, Mikael & Huuki, Hannu & Kivisaari, Visa & Kopsakangas-Savolainen, Maria, 2018. "The importance of transnational impacts of climate change in a power market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 418-425.
    4. Farkhod Aminjonov, 2020. "Policy Innovations and Rationale for Sustainable Energy Transition in the UAE," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(7), pages 2398-2412, December.
    5. Sebastian Strunz, Erik Gawel, and Paul Lehmann, 2015. "Towards a general Europeanization of EU Member States energy policies?," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    6. Gullberg, Anne Therese & Ohlhorst, Dörte & Schreurs, Miranda, 2014. "Towards a low carbon energy future – Renewable energy cooperation between Germany and Norway," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 216-222.
    7. Soha, Tamás & Munkácsy, Béla & Harmat, Ádám & Csontos, Csaba & Horváth, Gergely & Tamás, László & Csüllög, Gábor & Daróczi, Henriett & Sáfián, Fanni & Szabó, Mária, 2017. "GIS-based assessment of the opportunities for small-scale pumped hydro energy storage in middle-mountain areas focusing on artificial landscape features," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1363-1373.
    8. Hagos, Dejene Assefa & Gebremedhin, Alemayehu & Zethraeus, Björn, 2014. "Towards a flexible energy system – A case study for Inland Norway," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 41-50.
    9. Gawel, Erik & Strunz, Sebastian & Lehmann, Paul, 2014. "Wie viel Europa braucht die Energiewende?," UFZ Discussion Papers 4/2014, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    10. Vakulchuk, Roman & Overland, Indra & Scholten, Daniel, 2020. "Renewable energy and geopolitics: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    11. Scholten, Daniel & Bosman, Rick, 2016. "The geopolitics of renewables; exploring the political implications of renewable energy systems," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 273-283.
    12. Gaigalis, Vygandas & Skema, Romualdas, 2014. "Sustainable economy development and transition of fuel and energy in Lithuania after integration into the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 719-733.
    13. Steen, Markus & Weaver, Tyson, 2017. "Incumbents’ diversification and cross-sectorial energy industry dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(6), pages 1071-1086.
    14. Haley, Brendan, 2014. "Promoting low-carbon transitions from a two-world regime: Hydro and wind in Québec, Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 777-788.
    15. Ceglarz, Andrzej & Beneking, Andreas & Ellenbeck, Saskia & Battaglini, Antonella, 2017. "Understanding the role of trust in power line development projects: Evidence from two case studies in Norway," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 570-580.
    16. Askeland, Kristine & Bozhkova, Kristina N. & Sorknæs, Peter, 2019. "Balancing Europe: Can district heating affect the flexibility potential of Norwegian hydropower resources?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 646-656.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heike Klüver & Iñaki Sagarzazu, 2013. "Ideological congruency and decision-making speed: The effect of partisanship across European Union institutions," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(3), pages 388-407, September.
    2. Sanjeev Gupta & João Tovar Jalles, 2020. "On the Political Economy Determinants of Tax Reforms: Evidence from Developing Countries," Policy Papers 199, Center for Global Development.
    3. Jacob M. Meyer, 2020. "Checks and Imbalances: Exploring the Links between Political Constraints and Banking Crises using Econometric Mediation," Journal of Economics and Econometrics, Economics and Econometrics Society, vol. 63(1), pages 71-96.
    4. André Kaiser, 1997. "Types of Democracy," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(4), pages 419-444, October.
    5. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina Fischer, 2008. "Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(1), pages 119-173, January.
    6. Alvaro Forteza & Juan S. Pereyra, 2021. "Separation of powers with ideological parties," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 33(3), pages 333-382, July.
    7. Oliver Pamp, 2008. "Partisan Preferences and Political Institutions: Explaining Fiscal Retrenchment in the European Union," European Political Economy Review, European Political Economy Infrastructure Consortium, vol. 8(Spring), pages 4-39.
    8. Jin Mun Jeong & Dursun Peksen, 2019. "Domestic Institutional Constraints, Veto Players, and Sanction Effectiveness," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 63(1), pages 194-217, January.
    9. repec:dgr:rugccs:200006 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Serguei Kaniovski, 2008. "The exact bias of the Banzhaf measure of power when votes are neither equiprobable nor independent," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 31(2), pages 281-300, August.
    11. Carlos Scartascini & Mariano Tommasi & Ernesto Stein, 2010. "Veto Players and Policy Trade-Offs- An Intertemporal Approach to Study the Effects of Political Institutions on Policy," Research Department Publications 4660, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    12. Chris Hanretty & Christel Koop, 2013. "Shall the law set them free? The formal and actual independence of regulatory agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 195-214, June.
    13. Geys, Benny, 2006. "Looking across borders: A test of spatial policy interdependence using local government efficiency ratings," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 443-462, November.
    14. Stanley L. Winer, 2016. "The Political Economy of Taxation: Power, Structure, Redistribution," Carleton Economic Papers 16-15, Carleton University, Department of Economics.
    15. Niklas Potrafke, 2012. "Political cycles and economic performance in OECD countries: empirical evidence from 1951–2006," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 155-179, January.
    16. Jason Webb Yackee & Susan Webb Yackee, 2009. "Divided government and US federal rulemaking," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 3(2), pages 128-144, June.
    17. Volkerink, Bjorn & De Haan, Jakob, 2001. "Fragmented Government Effects on Fiscal Policy: New Evidence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 109(3-4), pages 221-242, December.
    18. Marcelin, Isaac & Stephen, Sheryl-Ann K. & Fanta, Fassil & Tecklezion, Mussie, 2019. "Political regimes, investment and electoral uncertainty," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 580-599.
    19. Fuchs, Dieter, 1997. "Kriterien demokratischer Performanz in Liberalen Demokratien," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Institutions and Social Change FS III 97-203, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    20. Aleksandr Yakovlevich Rubinstein, 2016. "Theory Of Patronized Goods. Liberal Evolution Of Paternalism," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge, Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP, vol. 4(1), pages 6-29, June.
    21. John Coultrap, 1999. "From Parliamentarism to Pluralism," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 11(1), pages 107-135, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:57:y:2013:i:c:p:615-623. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.