The Norwegian government released a report on Friday stating that the ill-famed global warming is going to benefit the country by bringing them more rain. If you didn’t know already, Norway is dependent (97%) on hydropower, whose output reached 146 TWh in 2012 alone.
Hydro inflows from melting snow and rain accounted for 5 TWh above normal. In the past 100 years, precipitation in Norway rose by 20 percent – and it’s clearly not going to stop going up.
“Most studies show that climate change will lead to an increase in the average annual inflow to power plants in Norway, and thereby increase the production potential for hydropower,” said Hege Hisdal, head of hydrologic modeling at NVE.
From 1995 to 2013, the energy produced by weekly precipitation levels rose by 13 percent, says a Reuters article. It’s also expected that “precipitation levels that can be used for power generation to increase by 0-15 percent during the next 10-20 years.”
Last year, a study commissioned by the Nordic Council of Ministers predicted an increase of 10 percent in the 2021-2050 period, compared to a similar period 60 years ago.
