Analysis of development of Norwegian household solar energy ecosystem

Abstract

Solar energy for self-production is one of the tools for improving energy efficiency in buildings to achieve EU’s climate and energy goals, while solar energy has a very small share and is increasing slowly in Norway. This paper analyses the four main reasons why solar power has an insignificant role: hydropower with much lower cost, low energy output in winter due to less sunlight, unclear personal willingness to adopt solar photovoltaics (PV) on their houses and current fixed PV panels with low energy efficiency. Based on this analysis, we propose to use a tilting PV system for the current buildings to improve the efficiency and performance of utilization of the solar radiation. In three cities Oslo, Stavanger and Trondheim, economic return for the investment in PV panels is also calculated with payback period (PBP) analysis based on the electricity prices in 2022. It shows that it is profitable with the payback period of over 10 years while the solar panels’ life span is over 30 years. Further research questions are also discussed.