page_title: Nordic countries
section_title: Energy
hierarchical_section_title: Nordic countries / Economy / Energy
caption_attribution_description: Dansk: Middelgrundens Vindmøllepark (40 MW) i Øresund English: Middelgrunden offshore wind farm (40 MW) observed in Øresund
context_page_description: The Nordic countries, or the Nordics, are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic, where they are most commonly known as Norden. The term includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as the Faroe Islands and Greenland, which are both part of the Kingdom of Denmark. The Åland Islands is a part of the Republic of Finland; Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard, which belong to the Kingdom of Norway, are also included. Bouvet Island is sometimes not considered a part of the Nordic countries due to its geographical location. Several regions in Europe such as the Northern Isles of Scotland share cultural or ethnic ties with the Nordic nations, but are not considered to be part of the Nordic countries. Scandinavians, who comprise over three quarters of the region's population, are the largest group, followed by Finns, who comprise the majority in Finland; other ethnic groups are the Greenlandic Inuit, the Sámi people, and recent immigrants and their descendants. The native languages Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese are all North Germanic languages rooted in Old Norse.
context_section_description: The Nordic region is one of the richest sources of energy in the world. Apart from the natural occurrence of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, the Nordic countries also have good infrastructure and technology to exploit renewable energy sources such as water, wind, bio-energy and geothermal heat. Especially Iceland and Sweden, but also Finland and Norway, have a significant production of electricity based on hydro power. Geothermal energy production is the most important
  source of energy in Iceland, whilst nuclear power is produced in both Finland and in Sweden. The indigenous production of energy in the Nordic countries has risen considerably over the last couple of decades – especially in Denmark and Norway due to oil deposits in the North Sea.
  The most important energy sources in the Nordic countries measured in terms of energy supply in million toe (tonnes oil equivalent) are in order of importance: oil, solid fuels (e.g. coal and wood), nuclear power, hydro and geothermal power and solar energy and gas. In the EU, the most important source of energy is also oil, but gas comes in second. Hydro and geothermal power and other renewable sources of energy are major sources in the Nordic countries as compared to the EU countries. Particularly in Iceland and Norway, hydro and geothermal power constitute a major share of the overall energy supply. Denmark depends almost entirely on thermal power generated from coal, oil and gas. Iceland obtains a substantial part of its energy for heating from geothermal energy and depends almost entirely upon hydro-power resources for its production of electricity.
caption: During the recent years, Denmark has invested heavily in windfarms
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