Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project
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The Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project involves damming two rivers in eastern Iceland to produce hydroelectricity to power a new aluminium smelting plant that is being built by Alcoa in the town of Reyðarfjörður. It is the largest construction project ever in Iceland, with completion scheduled for 2009. The project is funded by Landsvirkjun (The National Power Company) which will operate the dam once it is finished. The Italian company Impregilo is the largest contractor working on the dams.
Five major dams are planned, of which the largest will be 193 m high and 730 m long. The Hálslón reservoir will be 57 km² on the surface, and provide a flow of 110 m³/s - enough to generate 690 MW of electricity.
The dams have been the frequent subject of protests by environmentalists; the area is at the heart of the second largest unspoiled wilderness in Europe and covers about 1000 square kilometres in total.
The building of the dam has already started. A 450 m (1476 ft) deep vertical steel lining (penstock) is currently being built in situ by the German company DSD-NOELL (Wuerzburg); for comparison, this is roughly the same as the height of the Sears Tower in Chicago, the tallest habitable building in America at 452 m (1483 ft). It will be followed by the power station, which will be located even deeper in the mountain. In total, more than 4,000 tons of steel are going to be used for the steel liner—the equivalent of 2,000 cars.
On 28 september 2006, water levels have begun rising. It is estimated that in the summer of 2007, with water from glacier rivers, the water level will reach its peak.
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