The reasons why hydropower remained. Sociotechnical imaginaries of electricity futures in Norway from 1945 to 1990. A media analysis based on articles from the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten

The European Union’s endeavors to find the right path to a climate-neutral future in 2050, the so-called green shift, is the subject of heated debate. One of the currently most discussed question is: What are the electricity sources of the future? While EU’s member states arguing about the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear and gas-fired power plants during this green shift, other countries have already succeeded in achieving extensive climate-neutrality in the electricity sector. Norway is currently one of the largest producers of sustainable electricity in Europe with an annual hydropower production capacity of 136.6 TWh from around 33,000 MW installed capacity (2021)[1]. Moreover, one of Norway’s possible strategies is to become the green battery of Europe – enabling neighboring countries to store energy peaks from renewable electricity generation in the Norwegian energy system.

Its geological and climate prerequisites enabled Norway to become a forerunner for renewable energies in the global electricity market. The advantages of hydropower technology found unbroken success in Norway in the first decades after World War II, heralding the beginning of the “most intense period for hydropower development in Norway”[2]. This period ended in 1990 when most of today’s hydropower capacities were fully developed and new legislation was introduced. Today we take Norway’s hydropower legacy for granted and therefore know little about the country’s own electricity debates during this expansion period.

As part of the PhD research project “Norway’s hydropower development boom in the perception of society”, this contribution to the EGU General Assembly 2022 is intended to shed light on these electricity debates by elaborating the sociotechnical imaginaries of electricity futures in Norway from 1945 to 1990[3]. Different public debates facing electricity capacity building of this period will be presented by analyzing 62 articles of Norway’s most important newspaper of public record Aftenposten. Who participated in these debates? What is the respective imagination about Norway’s electricity future about and for what reason?

It turns out that the renewables pioneer in the north of Europe was not a hermetically sealed land of hydropower enthusiasts. Quite the opposite: In the public debates of scientists, engineers, politicians and residents in Norway, developments on the global electricity market were taken seriously, such as the introduction of nuclear power technology, the onset of transnational electricity trading, and the emerging social skepticism about ecological damages caused by hydropower. As a final remark, this contribution will face the question why hydropower remained the ‘royal road’ for Norway’s electricity development.

[1] Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat (ed.). 2021. Vannkraft. https://www.nve.no/energi/energisystem/vannkraft/

[2] Lia, L. et al. 2015. “The current status of hydropower development and dam construction in Norway”. International journal of hydropower and dams. Vol. 22(3): 42.

[3] The wording refers to the concept of “sociotechnical imaginaries” as described in Jasanoff, S. 2015. “Future Imperfect: Science, Technology, and the Imaginations of Modernity’” in Jasanoff, S. and Kim, S. H. (eds.) Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 1–33.