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Energy consumption in the Norwegian mainland economy 1835–2012

A characteristic feature of the pre-industrial societies was that they relied on limited energy resources. It was only by using fossil fuels and new technologies that these societies could move the boundaries that the organic economy had set for production and consumption.

Norwegian energy history is, from the 1900th Century on, about the movement of those boundaries and is composed of two stories. One deals with the mainland economy, the other deals with the foreign economy (the merchant marine, etc.). These two stories are closely connected but are nonetheless dissimilar.

In this article, we present a sketch of the first story about energy consumption in the mainland economy, in the form of an energy accounting for the Norwegian mainland 1835–2012. The accounts show the accumulated consumption of energy from nine selected energy carriers in Norway. Our work is the first overall accounting 1835–2012, and gives new insights into the field of energy consumption research. Specifically, we provide a new accounting of Norwegian energy consumption in the years 1835–1900 and 1950–1976.

In the result section we first present figures for energy consumption 1835–2012. Secondly, we briefly outline an energy history for the foreign sector. We round out the result section with a brief reflection on whether the Norwegian energy history is so deviant from other countries that we can talk about a separate Norwegian development.