Norway eliminates tax incentive on energy for data centers

Norway’s government proposes eliminating reduced electricity tax for Bitcoin miners
The government of Norway proposed that data centers be subject to the same electricity tax rates as other industries.
Norway’s government proposes eliminating reduced electricity tax for Bitcoin miners
Avvikler redusert elavgift for datasentre og kryptoutvinning
Regjeringen foreslår å avvikle den reduserte satsen i elavgiften for datasentre. Kraft til datasentre vil dermed være ilagt elavgift etter alminnelige satser, i likhet med kraft til andre tjenesteytende næringer.
Avvikler redusert elavgift for datasentre og kryptoutvinning

Eliminates reduced electricity tax for data centers and crypto mining

Press release | No: 52/2022 | Date: 06.10.2022
This content is more than 1 year old.
The government proposes to abolish the reduced rate in the electricity tax for data centres. Power for data centers will thus be subject to electricity tax according to general rates, in the same way as power for other service industries.
  • We are in a completely different situation in the power market now than when the reduced rate for data centers was introduced in 2016. In many places, the supply of power is now under pressure, which causes prices to rise. At the same time, we see a development with increased extraction of cryptocurrency in Norway. We need this power of community. The government will therefore discontinue the scheme, says Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp).
Previous investigations show that it is not practically possible to distinguish between power used for the extraction of cryptocurrency and other purposes in the data centres. If mining of cryptocurrency is to be subject to electricity tax at the normal rate, the reduced rate for power to data centers must be phased out in its entirety.
The proposal is estimated to generate additional revenue of NOK 150 million accrued and NOK 110 million booked in 2023.