Trondheim, June 13 - Speaking at the Eurelectric Covention 2006 in Oslo yesterday, Norway's Minister of Petroleum and Energy Mr. Odd Roger Enoksen has announced that the country will invest US $3.2 billion in bioenergy, biofuels and other renewable energy forms.

 

"Today I proudly present a new state fund for renewable energy and energy efficiency. The fund amounts to 20 billion Norwegian kroner or euro 2.5 billion. The proceedings from the fund will be disposed of by government agency Enova. The size of the fund implies that effort in promoting renewable and energy efficiency will be more than doubled".

 

"The aim is to increase the production of new renewable energy and energy efficiency to 30 terawatt hours in 2016. The new fund will give a predictable, long term framework for the industry in this field. The Ministry will explore and implement a feed-in system for renewable electricity within this framework of the fund. A new feature is that hydropower projects will get support up to 3 MW. There is no support for small scale hydropower today".

 

Read the full text of the speech here:

http://odin.dep.no/oed/english/news/speeches/minister/026021-090140/

dok-bn.html 

 

David Smith, Singapore