Ressursrente og ressursrentebeskatning av landbasert vindkraft : en analyse av ressursrente og ressursrentebeskatning av landbasert vindkraft i Norge

Abstract

This master thesis focuses on the resource rent and the subsequent taxation of resource rent in onshore wind power in Norway. In an industry that has experienced rapid growth in profitability in a short period of time, there has also been a growing debate about whether a resource rent tax should also be introduced to the Norwegian wind power industry. The master thesis presents and discusses if there exists a theoretical and financial foundation for a taxation of the resource rent, in addition to present different variants of resource rent taxation and to argue which one would fit the wind power business. The thesis is built upon a three-folded research question, so that it would answer if there is a financial foundation to introduce a resource rent tax, if there is a theoretical foundation for such a tax and how a prospective resource rent tax could be arranged for the wind power industry, and which tax rate to choose. In the start of the thesis we will present the Norwegian wind power industry, where we will look at the historical development, the situation of today as well as looking at the future of the trade. Then we will present the relevant theory for resource rent and resource rent tax, before we take a closer look at the regulation and subsidization of wind power and how the resource rent tax is designed for the industries of aquaculture, hydropower and petroleum in Norway. Thereafter we will introduce the methodology of the project, before we will conduct the analysis. In this thesis we have mainly had a quantitative approach, but to enhance the quality of our discussion we have also included a qualitative focus. Even though Norwegian wind power has experienced a rapid growth over the last years, our results indicate that at the time of writing it doesn’t exist enough resource rent in order to introduce a taxation. The costs related to investment and operations of Norwegian wind power plants have sunk drastically, and according to experts this decline in costs will continue over the next decade. This indicates that it no longer requires high electricity prices in order to achieve a profit, however the power market fluctuations are still too high to introduce a resource rent tax. Nevertheless, we have decided that we believe that the optimal variant of a resource rent tax for Norwegian wind power is a value fee, which will consider the fluctuation power prices without creating increased administrative expenses.