Hydro has signed a contract regarding the construction of a windmill park at Havøygavlen in Finnmark.
The contract, which is with the Dutch energy company, Nuon, and Norsk Miljøkraft, involves the construction of 16 windmills with a total capacity of 40 megawatt. By comparison, today's wind power capacity in the whole of Norway is just below 20 megawatt.
"The windmill park will be located on a three square kilometer site at Havøygavlen, north of Hammerfest. This is one of the most suitable areas in Norway for wind power production," says head of department Svein Solhjell of Hydro Energy, who works on wind power and other renewable forms of energy.
"The challenge of wind power is to find locations with enough space and good wind conditions. The harsh weather prevailing at Havøygavlen renders the site extreme, as far as the feasibility of wind power production is concerned.
Whereas the Directorate for Nature Management and the Central Office of Historic Monuments recently issued a joint statement criticizing some Norwegian wind power projects, Havøygavlen was singled out as a positive example.
With a capacity of 2.5 megawatt, the windmills to be built at Havøygavlen are the biggest in production today. They are supplied by the Danish-German company Nordex, with whom the windmill park owners have entered into an operating and maintenance agreement. The windmill park is estimated to cost NOK 336 million. The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration has injected an investment grant of NOK 65 million and construction work is planned to start in spring 2002, with production coming on stream in late autumn during the same year.
Green energy
Wind power provides an entitlement to green certificates which prove that the power is produced from renewable energy. Energy producers from 12 European countries have come together in a group to develop a trading system for green certificates.
The Renewable Energy Certificate System , as it is known, will require energy customers to purchase a certain number of green certificates and, in so doing, to support the expansion of plants producing green energy. Hydro is also taking part in the system and has already sold its first green certificates to the Netherlands.