Green Heat and Power. Eco-effective Energy Solutions in the 21st Century

Norway has emerged as a major producer of oil, gas, and hydropower during the lifetimes of the authors of this report. Our accumulated experience in working on environmental conservation spans approximately 50 years, with our main area of concentration being energy and the environment. Although river systems have been harnessed into pipes and many oil fields have been developed, on the threshold of a new century we feel confident that the majority would agree that our future energy needs cannot be based and sustained on the exploitation of the natural environment. This report outlines how Norway can reposition itself to become an important energy supplier that can help solve environmental problems instead of create them. It is also a guide to what we think is important to know about energy and the challenges facing the environment. It is all too easy to become swamped by information, which is why we have elected to focus firmly on essentials. We not only look at the solutions of the past, we look into what the future may bring. New thinking and approaches to the problems that are as yet little known are outlined in detail. We seek to present solutions developed from a more integrated ''big-picture'' perspective. Our target audience is people with a general interest in the subject, individuals who work with these kinds of challenges on a day-to-day basis, politicians and other decision-makers, and people who are actively engaged in research and development. This report represents a stark contrast to the report published by the government-appointed energy co mission, a commission which was unable to demonstrate how Norway could both increase energy production and decrease energy consumption, while simultaneously reducing greenhouse-gas emissions in compliance with our international commitments. The report documents that up until the year 2020, Norway can free up one sixth of the electricity produced, reduce CO2 emissions by over 50%, produce 50 TWh of renewable energy, and export large amounts of ''clean '' fossil fuels such as hydrogen and electricity. We have only proposed measures up until 2010, partly because the world will have changed by that time, and because the best means of predicting the future is to be part of creating it