Norway
Contracting Party: The Research Council of Norway (NFR)
Executive Committee Member:
Carsten Sørlie
Project Leader
Equinor
Norway
Alternate Member:
Bjarte Lønøy
Senior Researcher
NORCE
Norway
Norway is a young nation when it comes to utilization of geothermal energy, currently there is no electrical production from geothermal resources with use dominated by the widespread deployment of heat pumps. Data from 2022 identifies 1862 MWth of geothermal heat pump capacity supplying ~21 GJ per year of energy. There were 4700 new geothermal heat pump systems installed during 2023.
Norway also has a few geothermal installations that use lower temperature fluids circulated from wells drilled to less than 1500m such as the installation to de-ice pavement areas at the Oslo Airport and a sports field, the Li turf in Gjelleråsen. There are preliminary plans for utilising deep geothermal energy in a district heating scheme in in Ny Ålesund, a remote settlement in Artic Svalbard, replacing fossil fuels with geothermal energy.
The Geothermal Energy Association of Norway (GEAN) coordinates geothermal energy sector activities in Norway. In 2023 GEAN took over from the Norwegian Centre for Geothermal Energy Research that had been established in 2009 to facilitate the development of knowledge and technology to form a basis for commercial utilisation of geothermal energy in Norway and worldwide.