PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Investment tax lifted in Norway, but domestic PV development still lags

Despite a power shake-up in the government, Norway has decided to include solar energy in a plan to provide 5 billion NOK ($595 million USD) for renewable energy research and development over the next ten years.

The revision to the plan by Norway’s finance department, made March 7, means that a seven percent investment tax, which had been previously removed from wind power, biomass, and heat pumps investments, will also be eliminated for solar energy. This follows the passage of the 2000 budget last October, which included 355 million NOK ($42.3 million) for renewables. Although the climate for PV export will probably improve, domestically PV in Norway, which has no feed-laws laws, is still in the dark ages.

Politics has certainly muddied the financial waters. In mid-March the Labour Party, headed by Jens Stoltenberg, brought down Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik’s Centrist Party. The change in government could weaken the momentum for the ten-year renewables funding plan. But the real uncertainty for PV concerns the 2000 budget. How much is available for PV applications? Probably not much.

According to Roar Brunborg, deputy director general of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, it is not possible to determine what percentage of the 2000 renewables budget would go to PV. »It all depends on if there are any good proposals for solar energy,« says Brunborg. The awarding of grants, to be made by the Water and Energy Directorate, will go to projects requiring the least amount of public funding. Most of the money is expected to go to biomass and wind energy projects.

Fritjof Salvesen, senior partner with KamEnergi Consulting, will be managing the research portion of the money for the Norwegian Research Council. According to Salvesen, of the 40 million NOK ($4.8 million) for research on renewables this year, only about 5 million NOK ($595,000) will be for photovoltaics, a level he considers an improvement in a country where PV applications are not expected to be significant domestically in the next 20 years. »We still have a high priority on PV in research funding because we want to develop the Norwegian industry for the export market,« Salvesen says, citing funding support for silicon producer Elkem, which is conducting research on new ways of making solar-grade silicon with Norwegian wafer producer ScanWafer.

In addition ScanWafer is starting up a new company called ScanCell, which expects to begin solar cell production in Norway by the end of the year. PV research funds are also being made available to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to support the development of post-graduate degree programs. Although Salvesen says 150 million NOK ($17.9 million) is available for renewables applications in the 2000 budget, he expects less than 1 million NOK ($119,000) to go to PV, most of which would be used for off-grid applications.

Truls Gulsowsen of Greenpeace Norway agrees that the budget, although good for research, will probably not do much for PV applications in Norway. »People say we are so far north that we can’t use PV,« Gulsowsen comments. »But it has been shown of course that we could use it very well here.« He is more concerned about the government’s support for creating gas-fired power plants which would »flood the country with cheap electricity« to the detriment of renewables. »It’s the government biting its own tail,« he says.

The Norwegian government is also considering setting up a separate agency for renewable energy, removing it from the control of the Norwegian Water and Energy Directorate. No name or date for start up has been decided on yet.

Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
Deputy Director General Roar Brunborg
phone +47/22/246334
www.odin.dep.no/oed/