The case in summary: Developers are struggling to find places to build solar parks, and NVE has so many applications that they have to hire more people to handle the amount. In 2022, the first license to build a solar park in Norway came, and many developers have since applied for a license. Landowner Karine Huseby says no to cutting down trees in her forest to build a solar park. Huseby argues that the forest stores carbon both in the tree and under the ground, and that it would be wrong to say that green energy is created when the forest first has to be sacrificed. She also believes that the infrastructure that is laid out for solar parks destroys the natural environment. Huseby proposes that solar parks are first built on roofs. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAI. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. Farmer Karine Huseby shows the way into the path through Huseby Forest, a popular outdoor area for many in the neighbourhood. A good mix of natural and planted forest. Ho strode over prickly branches. But now it is she who has the spikes out. – Over the past year, I have been contacted again and again with questions about using our forest to build a solar park. The answer is a resounding no. Queue of cases In 2022, the first permit to build a solar park in Norway came. The Storting adopted a target that solar power should produce 8 terawatts of electricity by 2030. This gave many developers momentum. It is NVE that approves such applications. Jo Arne Marvik processes applications for new power generation. – Now there are close to 50 such messages and applications for ground-mounted solar power, says Marvik. Most of them have arrived in the last year. Adviser Jo Arne Marvik in NVE Photo: Arne Stubhaug / news This has led to queues and delays. Therefore, NVE must appoint more people who can assess who should get yes and who should get no. – We have to assess whether the benefit to society is greater than the disadvantages, a possible damage to nature, explains Marvik. Peace. Olsen Renewables is one of the companies in the queue. They have been waiting for almost a year for a response from NVE. On the border between Sandefjord and Tønsberg, a 560-acre solar park is desired by both businesses and landowners. A little further south in Vestfold, landowner Karine Huseby says, on the contrary, no to cutting down a single tree. Kjerringa against the current – I don’t want to moralize about colleagues who say yes to logging and renting out to current producers, says Karine Huseby. It can provide good income, she realises. But the farmer is getting increasingly angry at those who call and nag about being allowed to build in the forest her grandfather planted once upon a time. The forest stores carbon both in the tree and under the ground, explains Huseby. Karine Huseby does not agree that solar cells are a smart solution to get more electricity. Photo: Mette Stensholt Schau / news She thinks it is completely wrong to say that green energy is being created, when it means that the forest must first be sacrificed. – They say that they can only remove everything when the rental period is up, but it’s not that simple. Infrastructure has been dug, driven and laid out in the area. As a result, much of the natural environment has been destroyed, she says and talks enthusiastically about symbioses and fungi and the owls that live here. She relies on the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture, which told Bondebladet on 15 February this year that solar cells in forests can increase emissions of greenhouse gases. – Can’t they build on the roof first, she asks. – Time to “pull the emergency brake” on behalf of Norwegian nature, says Storting representative Alfred Bjørlo (V). Six out of ten Norwegians believe that too much nature is being destroyed in Norway, research shows. news has been working on this case since the beginning of February, when a post from Karine Huseby took off on Facebook. Østlands-Posten has also worked on the case, and was the first to publish it.
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NVE has a queue of developers – news Vestfold and Telemark – Local news, TV and radio
