Ardalen power plant

Ardalen power plant is a hydropower plant in the Vaksdal watercourse in Vaksdal municipality, in Hordaland.

The power plant was built by Vaksdal Industrier AS to ensure energy supply for its own production, and it was put into operation in 1955. In 2004, Norsk Grønnkraft AS took over the power plant from Cermaq, which then owned Vaksdal Industrier.

In 2017, Småkraft AS and Norsk Grønnkraft AS merged, and the power plant is today owned by Småkraft AS.

 

 

The Herfindal Dam is the intake dam for the power plant. There are also ten storage reservoirs with a total of fifteen dams on the mountain, of which six are regulated dams. All are brick dams with peat as the core sealant. The first dams were built around 1880.

Installed capacity is 2.5 MW with a Francis turbine, and the power plant has a total average annual production of 10.4 GWh.

Technical data

Rainfall field

17.3 km²

Minimum water flow

Intake elevation

304 m

Power station elevation

179,0 m

Drop height

125 m

Production

10.4 GWh
This corresponds to electricity 650 households.