A spokesman for the Norwegian industrial group said it had undertaken a pre-feasibility study for a smelter and accompanying hydro power plant and submitted the report in late May to the homeland government of Greenland, which is a Danish territory. The study had been carried out at the same time Alcoa was undertaking a similar examination.
The Alcoa plan calls for construction of a 340,000 tonne/year smelter to be powered by a hydro plant. No details on the location of the plant and capacity have been given, and further studies are underway.
Norsk Hydro dropped the project when it failed to win the backing of the Greenland government. The spokesman declined to give details on the scale of the smelter and the capacity required for the hydro power plant.
He added that the company had no other hydro projects at an advanced stage of development. Norsk Hydro’s next smelter is to be a gas-fired, 585,000 tonne/year facility planned for Qatar, which will be the biggest in its portfolio and the largest anywhere constructed in one step.
The company has four smelters in Norway with a total output of about 900,000 tonne/year powered by hydro power, two-thirds of which comes from its own plants and the balance from the grid. The single biggest plant is the 350,000 tonne/year Sunndal facility.
The spokesman told IWP&DC that the marginal of hydro power has increased in Norway as energy prices have increased in Europe and through connected grids the plants have alternative sales possibilities. He was unable to immediately comment on the strategic view on hydro, such as the relative balance of new build and expansions versus acquisitions due to the influence of the changes in the energy market.
