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ENERGY

Can you get a government grant to make your Norwegian home energy efficient?

Making your home more energy efficient helps you reduce bills and do your bit for the environment. However, such work can come with a hefty price. So, are there any grants available in Norway?

Published: 23 December 2022 14:33 CET
Pictured are solar panels being installed in Norway.
Here's how you could get grants for making your home in Norway more efficient. Pictured are solar panels being installed in Norway. Photo by Bill Mead on Unsplash

While most Norwegian homes do a decent job of retaining heat, there is always room for improvement. 

The prospect of soaring energy bills and many wishing to do more for the environment means consumers and households are becoming more conscious about making their homes as energy efficient as possible. 

You can make a home more energy efficient in several ways, such as by improving insulation, installing a heat pump, changing windows and doors, or installing renewable energy like solar panels. 

However, these measures sometimes take work, and the cost of purchasing and installing energy-saving measures can put many households off, even if the measures will pay for themselves in the long term. 

Grants can help offset these costs and help homes make more energy-saving modifications to their home. ‘

But what are the rules for obtaining government grants, who is eligible, and how much can you claim? 

Energy grants from Enova

Enova SF, founded in 2001, is a Norwegian government enterprise responsible for promoting environmentally friendly production and energy consumption.

The company, owned by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, allows households to apply for grants to install energy-saving measures. The support you can claim depends on the scheme you are applying for. 

First up, only households can apply, and the grant must be used on the house to install renewable energy or make it more efficient. 

Additionally, you can register one application at a time and only apply for a grant of the same type once. Therefore, if you want to make the most of grants to help pay for making the home more energy efficient, you will need to tackle only one project at a time. 

Furthermore, the buyer of subsidy-eligible equipment and the subsidy recipient must be a household member. This means a family member or (very) close friend will not be able to purchase energy-saving products for you. 

Unfortunately, grants can’t be granted retroactively for those who have recently made their home more energy efficient. This means grants aren’t paid out for improvements that have already started or been completed. 

Subsidies are only awarded for new equipment from the factory.

How to apply

Applying for an Enova grant can be relatively straightforward. First, you will need to head to the website and find the type of subsidy you wish to apply for. When you find the subsidy, you will fill out details about the home, which energy sources you use and the measure you are applying for.

To receive the grant, you will need to submit a report form that accompanies that application, with a receipt for the purchase of the energy-saving measure. 

There is bad news for those not up to speed with the language as the application will need to be completed in Norwegian. 

What can you get subsidies for? 

You can get grants for a lot of different energy-saving measures. Some measures you can receive assistance for are solar power systems, smart power management systems, a smart water heater, a liquid-to-water heat pump, water-borne heat, energy efficiency consultancy, and a bio boiler or oven. 

The support you can get ranges from 25 to 50 percent, depending on what you apply for. For example, you can claim a grant for up to 50 percent, or the equivalent of 5,000 kroner, for a consultant to assess where your home can be made more energy efficient. 

Alternatively, you can claim up to 150,000 kroner to make the structure of the building more energy efficient or up to 47,500 kroner to install solar panels. 

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ENERGY

Why your latest energy bill in Norway was so expensive 

The coldest November in Norway for 13 years triggered a surge in energy consumption, which pushed up prices and led to costly electricity bills for many.

Published: 18 December 2023 11:10 CET
Why your latest energy bill in Norway was so expensive 

The average energy bill for November is expected to exceed 2,000 kroner, according to an energy price index from the energy organisation Fornybar Norge. 

Energy prices in Norway were high across the country, and the average price was high enough in all five energy price regions to trigger government support. The state in Norway covers 90 percent of the energy price that exceeds 70 øre per kilowatt hour. 

The reason for the spike in prices was a colder than typical November, which saw several records broken. Last month was the coldest November for 13 years.

READ ALSO: Could a heat pump be a cheap alternative for keeping your home warm in Norway?

The lower temperatures meant more and more cranked up the heating to keep warm. Energy consumption increased by a third during November compared to the same month a year ago. 

“The reason for the high electricity bills is that winter came early this year. It was bitterly cold for large parts of November, and this has meant that people have used much more electricity to heat their houses. This has led to increased demand for electricity, which in turn has caused electricity prices to rise,” deputy director Bård Standal of Fornybar Norge said. 

Due to the prices triggering support, Fornybar Norge estimated that households in southern Norway received around 640-700 kroner in energy support. Those in central and northern Norway may have received around 300 kroner in support. 

“The electricity subsidy scheme reduces the price consumers pay for electricity and probably also leads to somewhat higher electricity consumption,” Fornybar Norge said. 

Norway is reliant on hydropower to meet the majority of its energy needs. Low precipitation levels also mean that the occupancy rate in hydroelectric reservoirs is lower than the median in recent years. 

“In November, there were several weeks of low temperatures and less precipitation than average. The low temperatures contributed to a large part of the precipitation settling as snow and giving little inflow to the water reservoirs,” the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) said. 

In the winter, energy prices in Norway are likely to fluctuate, according to the NVE. 

“NVE assesses the power situation on an ongoing basis, and at the start of winter the power situation is good. We still expect periods of higher power prices than what we have been used to historically. What the prices will actually be during the winter depends on many factors such as the weather and the gas price,” the NVE said in a report. 

Another factor that affects energy prices in Norway is the export cables that transfer power from Norway to the continent. This also means that when energy prices are high across Europe, they will also be high in Norway. 

Gas prices also affect energy prices in Norway due to the presence of cables. While gas prices are lower than last year, they are still high compared to other years.  

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