For decades the relationship between Germany and Norway was clear, at least when it came to energy: Norway delivers and Germany pays.

Since 1977 Norwegian natural gas has been flowing through a pipeline on the floor of the North Sea to Emden and from there to millions of gas heating systems in Germany;

In 2020 it was almost 50 billion cubic meters, more than ever before and more than half of Germany's annual consumption.

Sebastian Balzter

Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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    Now the energy partnership is no longer so one-sided: On Thursday the heads of government of the two countries, Angela Merkel and Erna Solberg, officially put the first power cable between Germany and Norway into operation. In contrast to gas, Germany and Norway can be the exporter for electricity. And that is precisely why the 634 kilometer long cable called “Nordlink”, which runs from Tonstad in southern Norway to Wilster in Schleswig-Holstein, is much more controversial than the gas pipeline. And because it will probably hardly be mentioned at the ceremony, which will take place digitally out of consideration for the epidemic, it is worth taking a look in advance.

    Big words have accompanied the “Nordlink” project since the first concrete plans for it were drawn up almost ten years ago.

    It is also an exaggeration: Norway, the land of glaciers and fjords, is becoming the “green battery” of Europe, or at least Germany, through submarine cables like this one, it has often been said since then.

    What could be nicer for the green conscience than to use electricity from clean Norwegian hydropower, which flows through a cable from the north to the south?

    And what would be more helpful for the energy turnaround in Germany than the possibility of parking the wind power produced in abundance on the coast in a fresh breeze in the Norwegian reservoirs until there is a lull in the North Sea and the wind turbines come to a standstill?

    At most a buffer

    It's true: Norway covers more than 90 percent of its electricity needs from hydropower, emission-free and inexpensive. Around 1700 power plants are located on the country's many rivers and lakes. They are more flexible than coal or gas power plants and can be switched on and off more quickly. And, unlike wind turbines and solar systems in Germany, there is no feed-in tariff for them, even if cheaper electricity is available from other sources. So you can reduce your production when the wind drives the wheels in the south and the sun shines on solar panels.

    But it is still not enough to actually function as a large eco-battery in Germany or even all of Europe. Even if many more submarine cables were built than this one. There is almost a lack of available electricity in Norway. Germany alone has an electricity consumption of around 580 terawatt hours per year. The assembled Norwegian hydropower plants only produce a little less than a quarter of it, first of all for domestic needs. They can therefore not be more than a small buffer for Germany.

    Aside from the proportions, there is another reason not to overdo it with the battery in the north. The new arm-thick high-voltage direct current cable, built for around 2 billion euros by the Norwegian network operator Statnett and a joint venture between the German development bank KfW and the German-Dutch network operator Tennet, starts in Norway at a substation near the Tonstad hydropower station.