Country Update for Norway

Abstract

The highlight on energy efficiency and new building codes that restrict the use of energy for heating for new buildings have increased the interest for Geothermal Heat Pump (GHP) systems. The building codes will also increase the demand for environmentally friendly cooling which favors GHP and Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) applications. More than 90 % of the GHP systems utilize energy from boreholes in crystalline rocks. There is a trend with deeper boreholes and Borehole Heat Exchangers (BHE) to 500 m depths has successfully delivering heat for more than two years. There are no deep geothermal installations in operation, but assessments and preliminary plans for utilizing deep geothermal in a district heating system in mainland Norway and to replace fossil fuel with geothermal energy for settlements on Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway. To promote, cooperate and develop deep geothermal energy the Norwegian Centre for Geothermal Energy Research (CGER) was established in 2009. Today CGER have 17 partners from universities, research institutes, and industry. The Government recently announced the ambition to establish a national long-term research center for geothermal energy to develop national expertise and promote innovative geothermal solutions.