Even in Norway, heating has become a political issue since Russia attacked Ukraine, triggering an energy crisis in Europe. At first glance, the kingdom in the north now looks even more like a land of milk and honey than usual. Thanks to its own oil and gas wells, Norway not only benefits as an exporter from the increased prices on the world market.

The many hydroelectric power plants in the country also produce green electricity in abundance. And many homeowners started decades ago to install heat pumps and heat their homes with exactly this climate-friendly electricity. What else could go wrong?

The situation in Norway is fundamentally different from the situation in Germany. The Scandinavians are, in a way, a decade ahead of the Germans. The phase-out of oil and gas as heat sources has already been completed by the oil and gas producing country. Gas heaters were never widely used there. The conditions for the construction of the necessary infrastructure are poor in the rugged, sparsely populated country.

Oil boilers, on the other hand, enjoyed a certain popularity. However, when the price of oil rose in the seventies, they visibly lost their attractiveness. Even then, the triumphal march of electric heating began in Norway – not for ecological reasons, but for private economic reasons. In addition, a CO2 tax was introduced in 1991. Electricity was already cheaper than oil in Norway; the fact that it was also produced almost completely CO2-free from hydropower reinforced this trend.

Norwegians combine when heating

It was therefore comparatively easy for the government in Oslo to ban conventional oil heating systems in 2013 to protect the climate – with some exceptions and a seven-year transitional period, mind you, during which the state subsidized the installation of heat pumps, for example. At the end of this period, according to the state development company, about 20,000 oil heating systems were still in operation, which since then have only been allowed to be operated with biofuel oil.

There is another aspect that clearly distinguishes the Norwegian heating debate from the German one. In Norway, many more homeowners rely on the combination of two or three different heating systems than in Germany. It is also widespread that hot water preparation is separate from space heating. A typical example: An electric boiler heats the water, a heat pump heats the room air – and on cold days, when this is not sufficient for the desired room temperature, a fireplace is also fired up.

Against this background, unlike in Germany, neither the desire for more climate protection in the boiler room nor geostrategic considerations to reduce any dependence on unwelcome energy suppliers harbor great potential for conflict. The price of electricity, on the other hand, does.