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by throwaway2037
1395 days ago
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This is a great post. This part: <<This is mainly due to the NO4 being basically not connected to the the synchronous grid of Continental Europe>> and this part: <<Sweden makes a killing buying cheap power from NO4 and selling it to mainland Europe, or even straight back to southern Norway.>> Ouch! Is this not enough to push for interconnect? Or will the electricity price increases prevent such a change? Alternatively, why hasn't more heavy industry been built in NO4 zone? Or is it not possible due to winter weather? I also heard that in Norway, a high percentage of electricty is generated from gravity (water dams). That would make aluminium production ideal. I have heard this is one reason why Iceland, with excelent geothermal energy sources, is also a major aluminium producer. |
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I agree the selling of power to ourselves via Sweden seems weird, but I suppose it's better to do just that instead of having to drain the dam without producing electricity at all, and it's a solution which works at this moment instead of waiting for an interconnect to be built. I would hazard a guess that it does slightly reduce the cost of power in other regions whenever we do sell to Sweden from NO4, but I have no data. I haven't really heard much about this exact issue being discussed though, so I don't have much information regarding that. But the issue with prices jumping to European levels would be relevant here too.
There is a lot of heavy industry in the north, such as petroleum, mining, refining and others. Norway does have a large aluminium industry which does rely more or less exclusively on hydro power, and seems to be in the top ten of aluminium producing countries, just above Iceland.