Hydropower

Hydropower is the most important source for energy production in Norway now as in the future. The 550 or so hydropower plants in the country produce about 110 TWh annually. Their total production capacity is over 28 000 MW.

Norwegian hydropower plants mainly have four types of turbines: Pelton, Francis, Kaplan and Bulbturbines. Pelton turbines are commonly used with heads above 500 m, while Francis turbines cover heads between 50 to 600 m. This is the most used type in Norway. Kaplan and Bilbturbines are common in run-of-the-river power plants and heads below 50 m. Most hydropower plants were built prior to 1985. The 1960s and 1970s was a golden age for hydropower and about 150 plants were commissioned.

Norwegian industry, led by Kværner was at the international forefront of developments with the high-pressure Francis and Pelton turbines at that time. Even though Kværner has since been bought by the international conglomerate GE, development work on such high-pressure turbines is still done in Norway. This says something about the level of expertise and experience built up in the Norwegian hydropower industry during the past century.  

Following the deregulation of the energy market, a lot of attention has been given to the changed operational conditions. This means more stops and starts in production and more conscious control of the plants. Apart from finding out how to optimize production, a lot of work has been done in developing better runners and distributors (e.g. needels for Pelton turbines and distributors for Francis turbiner). 

SINTEF Energy Research has been involved in many projects related to turbines for hydropower plants. This work has either been done directly for the power generation companies or through their sectoral organization EBL. We have focused on the operation and maintenance of hydropower aggregates. Other projects are production reliability, how much the increased number of starts and stops costs, upgrading existing plant, new control algorithms, optimal financial and environmental turbine operation, minimalise losses, and the environmental impacts of new hydropower development schemes and upgrading.

A new area of interest in hydropower is power generation from tidal currents. SINTEF Energy Research has designed and developed a tidal current turbine for Hammerfest Strøm. This turbine has a rotor diameter of 20 m on a three-blade horizontal axis. The turbine is capable of generating power in both the directions of the tidal current.