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NPR All Things Considered piece on electric cars in Norway
- Thread starter gg_got_a_tesla
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The EV policy here is one of the things I really like about Norway. The last 3 years have been exciting - I remember when I first saw a Leaf driving around town, and I knew this would be the first of many sightings. I think it's only about a year since I stopped counting Leafs - now they're everywhere. And I'm reaching the point where I have to stop counting the Teslas I see. I drove 50 km on saturday, and I think I saw 5 Model S. There's around 3,000 Model S in Norway, and this will probably increase to around 10,000 by summer 2015. No way I will continue to count them beyond this year.
(Note that I live 1.5 hours away from Oslo, so I'm not in an area where EVs are particularly common, relative to the rest of Norway.)
(Note that I live 1.5 hours away from Oslo, so I'm not in an area where EVs are particularly common, relative to the rest of Norway.)
Amazing. The 99% hydro power part is so cool.
The SF Bay Area is similar in that the recent surge of EV adoption is quite noticeable. Very much the way the Prius started popping up a dozen years ago in numbers here before anywhere else.
The SF Bay Area is similar in that the recent surge of EV adoption is quite noticeable. Very much the way the Prius started popping up a dozen years ago in numbers here before anywhere else.
My only complaint about the article is that it leaves the listener with the impression that the only reason anyone would drive an EV is because of the extensive financial incentives. The interviewed owner didn't talk about the positive qualities of the car.
What makes it even more irritating is that not only do they have masses of hydro power, since 2009 they've been adding wind, with funding for a tripling of capacity approved last year (up to about 2% of total generation). Wind has to be balanced by other power sources, so it will need extra connections, but given that they have so much hydro (a super-source capable of being both baseload and peaker) I expect wind generation will keep growing. They've also been adding biomass. This is great because adds to export potential to other nations with less resource surplus.
Norway's 2020 target is 67.5% renewable. That's for all energy use.
I'm puzzled about your irritation. Hydro is a near-perfect source of balancing power for wind/solar/ocean/tidal energy. Pairing them up in the same control area (=Norway) means the export lines can be loaded efficiently with 100% renewable, block-loaded power. What's not to like?
To clarify, as Yggdrasil suggested, it's irritation caused by the stress of extreme envy.
