Electrification is essential to achieve emissions reductions in Norway. The new website, el-indeks.no, shows the electrification and emissions status of each municipality and serves as a starting point for further emission cuts through electrification.
In the Klimakur 2030 publication, the Norwegian Environment Agency (NEA) estimate that electrification can achieve cumulative emission reductions of around 13.6 million tonnes of CO2e from 2021 to 2030. This accounts for around 34% of the total emission reduction potential identified in Klimakur 2030.
El-indeks shows how municipalities add to Norway’s total GHG emissions and how they can reduce their emissions through electrification. The objective of El-indeks is to provide municipalities and businesses with an evidence base from which to plan further emissions reductions through electrification in their area, as well as to encourage collaboration among municipalities facing similar challenges. For example, municipalities in which the maritime sector accounts for a large proportion of emissions may want to cooperate on the electrification of that particular sector.
El-indeks calculates the current degree of electrification for each municipality and shows how much GHG emissions can be reduced through further electrification. It also calculates each municipality’s electrification potential and shows the proportion of total energy consumption that can be electrified.
The first edition of El-indeks shows that 54 percent of total national energy demand (the sum of all municipalities) is met by electricity, and that the largest potential for further electrification lies within the maritime sector, private vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, other combustion and light-duty vehicles.
According to the calculations performed by THEMA and published as part of El-indeks, Norway could cut current GHG emissions (excl. continental shelf) by 47 percent through the extensive electrification of all sectors in which electrification is possible.
The overview also shows that among municipalities with large cities, Kristiansand is the most electrified municipality, with electricity making up more than 64 percent of total energy consumption.
Stavanger is the municipality with the highest potential for electrification: 91 percent of energy consumption could potentially be electrified. This compares to a current level of electrification of 61 percent.
Bergen sources a slightly lower share of energy consumption from electricity, at 52 percent, but has the potential to reach 80 percent. Municipalities with a low degree of electrification often have heavy industries and/or an airport or seaport within their boundaries. This lowers the potential degree of electrification.
El-indeks was launched on the 16th of June and is a collaboration between Siemens and Agder Energi.
