Small Norway hydropower plan faces big opposition
© 2000 Reuters Limited
September 8, 2000
OSLO - Norway's state utility Statkraft said yesterday a political struggle over its plan to build a relatively small hydropower plant in northern Norway could pose new problems, although work has not yet been delayed.
Statkraft spokesman Bjoernar Olsen told Reuters the situation was "not unproblematic" for its 66 megawatt hydroelectric power station in the Beiarn watershed on the cusp of Saltfjellet-Svartisen national park.
Statkraft first received a required concession for a wider-scale project in 1989 but had agreed to reduce it for both financial and environmental reasons. The revised plan was approved by authorities in May 2000.
But a majority in parliament and environmentalists still oppose the plan, demanding a new impact study be conducted for its potential threat to food supply for reindeer and wild salmon in the watercourse.
Due to sustained political pressure, Oil and Energy Minister Olav Akselsen said he would try to resolve the conflict within two weeks, Norwegian daily Aftenposten reported yesterday.
"I want to find a solution together with the parliament, and we will find a solution," Akselsen said.
Yet Akselsen recently was quoted in local media stressing the difficulties of withdrawing state-owned Statkraft's concession on the basis that existing rules and regulations had to be upheld.
Norway, which produces virtually of its electricity from hydropower sources, has never taken back an existing concession for this kind of energy project.
Preliminary ground work for the Beiarn project has already started, with a timetable for completion of around three years.
The Beiarn concession further opens for two more Statkraft developments in the area, which may also be threatened by the heated political climate, Statkraft's Olsen said.
"We sense that this might create a precedent for the other two projects," he said.