In its report, the Energy Commission believed that a lot more has to be built and much faster than has been achieved to date.

This has caused the state’s own regulatory authority NVE to react strongly, writes Nettavisen.

“NVE believes that the Energy Commission points to several correct and important measures to secure and improve the energy and power balance in the long term. NVE nevertheless believes that it is not realistic to build out 40 TWh of renewable power production from hydropower, wind power, offshore wind and solar power by 2030, NVE writes as its first point on the first page of its consultation response.

They write that the commission has probably assumed that there are applications for up to twice as much electricity production as in reality:

“The Energy Commission writes that the authorities have about 25 TWh of new power generation to process. Several of these projects will not be realised. NVE wishes to clarify that this figure is based on several projects that are in NVE’s systems, but which are not actively in development. What NVE considers to be active projects amounts to approximately 13-14TWh, much of this is large wind power projects where a high level of conflict is expected,” reports the letter, which is signed by director Kjetil Lund.

In its consultation response, NVE writes, among other things, this:

Onshore wind power: “Based on the number of new onshore wind power projects in the notification and application phase as of now, NVE believes it is unlikely to achieve the Energy Commission’s ambition of 5-10 TWh increased production from onshore wind power by 2030”.

Offshore wind: NVE, among others, is consistently far more negative about offshore wind than both the government and the Energy Commission do:

“Based on the need for land, the possibility of practical implementation, economic realism, effects on the power system and the need for grids, NVE would like to point out that the target of building 30 GW of offshore wind by 2040 is very ambitious. The Commission’s proposed target of more than 5 TWh of offshore wind in production by 2030 is considered by NVE to be overly ambitious.

NVE concludes with the financial consequences that the Energy Commission’s proposal will entail.

“At present, offshore wind is not profitable either, such a large development will require extensive financial support from the authorities.”