Oddgeir Steinheim, Power Plant Manager, Energy, Norway
"We’re always hunting for more water. We’ve been doing this right from the start, over a hundred years ago. We’ve developed a lot of hydropower resources in Norway, but there’s still more we can get out of them. That’s what we’re doing now.
Take just one project at our existing hydropower location Tyin, near Årdal where I work. We’re planning to increase the amount of electricity we can generate by gathering more water and renovating the equipment.
We have a long history here in Årdal, starting back in 1918. The first turbine in the ‘old’ Tyin plant started in 1944, and we built a new power station at Tyin that was completed in 2004. We made better use of the catchment area of the old Tyin power station, increasing power production from the same water resources.
The next step is to run a new tunnel from Holsbru Lake and upgrade two turbines at the old Tyin plant. This will raise the total hydroelectric production there to more than 84 GWh. It’s a great example of using existing resources to make more electricity – enough for nearly 4,000 households.
We have a couple of other projects here in my area and around the country that will add more power – all by squeezing more out of our existing concessions.
If you take all the plans we have on the drawing board in Norway today, we’re looking at over 500 GWh more energy!"
Global sourcing
Finding renewable energy – at competitive prices – is the key to deciding where we can expand. Our Global Sourcing team scouts the world for sources of energy – preferably renewable – for new aluminium production.
Our energy mix
Energy accounts for roughly a third of the cost of production of aluminium. About two thirds of our aluminium production today is powered by renewable energy.
