How Iceland Signed Over a Quarter of Its Electricity to One Building Until 2048

Roughly a quarter of Iceland's electricity goes into one building. The customer is Alcoa's Fjarðaál aluminium plant at the head of a fjord on the east coast, which buys that power under a forty-year contract signed in March 2003 and running to 2048. To supply it, the national utility Landsvirkjun built Kárahnjúkar: a 690 MW station of six Francis turbines at 115 MW each, in a hall cut into rock, behind a dam close to two hundred metres high, fed by a 39.7 km headrace and more than seventy kilometres of bore driven by three tunnel boring machines, the first ever used in Iceland. On 7 March 2008 the Minister of Industry gave parliament the total: 133.3 billion krona, 17.7 billion over the estimate, seven months before the króna collapsed, which is why English sources carry both $1.18 billion and $1.3 billion for this project, two conversions of one krona figure made on two different days. The one number that would decide whether the trade was worth making, the tariff itself, is indexed to the aluminium price in London, has never been published by either side, and has to be renegotiated by 2028. #Iceland #Aluminium #Hydropower #Engineering #Infrastructure #Documentary DISCLAIMER ____________________________________ This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.