The report shows that the research is both profitable when you look at potential future effects and already realized effects of the research, since the Research Council of Norway began funding research into environmentally friendly energy.

Since the Norwegian Parliament approved the first climate settlement in 2008, allocation of money for research on environmentally friendly energy have increased annually, and in 2017 almost 800 million NOK was distributed via the Research Council of Norway to support the research.

Reduced energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions

The study includes 48 cases selected from a portfolio of approx. 670 projects. These have received funding from the Norwegian Research Council's program initiatives RENERGI, ENERGIX, CLIMIT and FME in the period 2008-2017.

In addition to the economic effect, the research has also led to a reduced energy consumption by 26 TWh per year in the Norwegian and European industry, and greenhouse gas emissions have been reduced by 25 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

The hydropower industry has adopted several innovations

Within hydropower, 55 large research projects were carried out in the period 2008-2017. 24 innovations were developed, several of which have already been adopted by industry and administration. The hydropower industry has already adopted several innovations. Increased knowledge about dams, waterways and turbines, measurement and use of data for planning maintenance and avoiding unplanned failure, tools for simulating the best possible utilization of the water and new methods for carrying out systematic environmental analyzes are among the innovations.

An overview of innovations from the hydropower research area. Six of these have been studied in more detail with regards to results, potential effects and realized effects.

In addition to innovations, the research funds have also led to the graduation of 60 PhD and post.doc candidates, and 275 master's candidates. This was a request from partners in the research centres.