Ordering Power from Shore - An STS analysis of electrification of the Norwegian Continental Shelf

Abstract

Power from shore is a Norwegian climate mitigation strategy that is situated in the middle of the Norwegian paradox of being both a climate-nation and an oil-nation. In physical terms, power from shore, or electrification, is the use of electrical energy from the Norwegian mainland to replace emission-intensive gas turbines that are producing electricity on the continental shelf. The ambition is to mitigate emissions from the extraction process. This thesis is a qualitative study of bureaucratic documents that seeks to answer the question: What is power from shore? Drawing on resources and insights from Science and Technology Studies, this open question is answered by studying the ordering of power from shore within Norwegian climate politics. The materials studied is a report series from the Norwegian public administration that includes three reports spanning from 1997 to 2008, as well as a political process from 2014 where the Norwegian parliament demanded electrification of the upcoming oil-fields on the Utsira High, a geological formation in the sea 200 km off the west coast of Norway. This was the first time such a demand had happened. The study shows that power from shore is ordered as solution to the climate problem, defined as carbon emissions from the production facilities, and that the emissions from the exported fuels are not taken into account. It also becomes a solution to a political problem; meeting the Norwegian domestic emission goals. Local, domestic, international and global spatial orderings are identified, and through the points in time, power from shore has moved from the global through the international, to the domestic. As such, it has followed a bigger trend in Norwegian climate politics. Economic expertise and calculations play a large role in ordering power from shore. Calculation of abatement cost has been used to make power from shore comparable to other measures, which in turn hide the peculiarities that are part of it. It becomes evident that continued extraction of oil is a premise, and is not discussed. However, at the last point in time, there are some evidence of small shift towards seeing the extraction as problematic, but this is largely seen as a separate discussion from power from shore.