In February, Empowered Futures member, and board representative, Vegard Solhjem Knutsen completed a two-week internship with our partner, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). NVE are the directorate under the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy responsible for the management and licensing of Norway’s water and energy resources. Vegard is a PhD Candidate in Energy and Society at the University of Agder. His PhD research project explores why Norwegian land-based wind power is controversial, what the driving forces behind resistance to wind power are, and how polices and planning practices can be rethought to enable a just pathway towards energy transition.
The internship offered Vegard an opportunity to understand more about NVE’s role in the licensing process for new wind power developments in Norway. During his time with NVE, Vegard was able to conduct interviews with several employees. His contact helped arrange interviews with some key staff, but others were happy to talk to him from just a knock on their door. Everyone he met was very welcoming and interested in discussing their role in the energy licensing process as well as answering critical questions about the Norwegian energy market. Vegard was also able to sit-in at meetings where NVE discussed changes to licensing, due to the resistance to Norwegian land-based wind power being so strong that they had temporarily halted the licensing process.
Vegard learned a lot from his time at NVE. He described the experience as “very fruitful” in understanding wind power and its place in Norwegian energy production, along with the complexities involved in the licensing process. Vegard believes the data he gathered through interviews, discussions and being part of the open environment at NVE will be useful in his future publications about how to think about the energy transition and new ways of managing our natural resources and energy resources: “We have to take care of the people who are living here, and also take care of the nature, and that is very difficult.”