Kårstø Power Station is an unused

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

-fired

thermal power plant A thermal power station, also known as a thermal power plant, is a type of power station in which the heat energy generated from various fuel sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, etc.) is converted to electrical energy. The heat ...

located at the

Kårstø Kårstø is an industrial facility located near the village of Susort, along the Boknafjorden, in the municipality of Tysvær in Rogaland county, Norway. The site features a number of natural gas processing, natural gas processing plants that refi ...

industrial site in the southwestern part of the municipality of

Tysvær Tysvær is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Rogaland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Haugalandet Districts of Norway, region. The municipality is located on the Haugalandet peninsula on the northern side ...

Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The station lies along the

Boknafjorden Boknafjord or Boknafjorden () is a fjord located in Rogaland county, Norway. The huge fjord lies between the cities of Stavanger and Haugesund and dominates the central part of the county. The main part of the fjord is shared between the municip ...

, about east of the town of

Kopervik Kopervik is the largest town on the island of Karmøy in Rogaland county, Norway. It is also the administrative centre of the municipality of Karmøy. It is part of the traditional district of Haugaland. The town was also an independent munic ...

. The power plant is owned and operated by the Naturkraft company, which is itself equally owned by

Statkraft Statkraft AS is a hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is ac ...

and

Statoil Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil and StatoilHydro) is a Norwegian multinational energy company headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. It is primarily a petroleum company operating in 36 countries with additional investments in renewable energy. In th ...

. Initial construction costs totaled about and the turbine was delivered from

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

. The plant opened on 2 November 2007 and was used intermittently for a few years before being mothballed on 3 October 2014. Approval for decommissioning was granted by the Norwegian government in 2016. Dismantling started in September 2017.

Capacity

The power station has an installed capacity of , with an annual production of , equivalent of 3% of the Norwegian electrical production. The power station consumes about 0.6 billion normal cubic meter natural gas per year, or 0.5% of Norwegian natural gas exports. Emissions are 1.2 million tonnes of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

and 5

parts per million In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe the small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantity, dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction (chemistry), mass fraction. Since t ...

nitrogen oxide Nitrogen oxide may refer to a binary compound of oxygen and nitrogen, or a mixture of such compounds: Charge-neutral *Nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen(II) oxide, or nitrogen monoxide * Nitrogen dioxide (), nitrogen(IV) oxide * Nitrogen trioxide (), o ...

. The entire output of the station is in

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

, since there is no need for

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heater, space heating and w ...

in the uninhabited area. Spill water is emitted at and not utilized.

Decommissioning

The power station has been subject to massive controversy in Norway.

is the first commercial

fossil fuel power station A fossil fuel power station is a thermal power station that burns fossil fuel, such as coal, oil, or natural gas, to produce electricity. Fossil fuel power stations have machines that convert the heat energy of combustion into mechanical ene ...

in Norway and

environmentalists Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement about supporting life, habitats, and surroundings. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecologi ...

have argued that it is unnecessary to open another power station as long as Norway has the highest use of electricity per capita in the world. Also long periods of low efficiency due to gas prices as well as the high cost of upgrading the equipment to lower greenhouse gas emissions led to several periods of temporary closures of the plant. These periods of closures increased the corporate losses of about annually for the plant. On 3 October 2014, Naturkraft AS decided to indefinitely suspend production at the power station due to the market situation. The facility continues to be minimally maintained so that at some point in the future it could resume power production. Decommissioning would have no effect on national power supply. Resume of power production is no longer possible, the dismantling and demolition of the plant started in September 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karsto Power Station Natural gas-fired power stations in Norway Energy infrastructure completed in 2007 Statkraft Equinor Tysvær

Capacity

Decommissioning

See also

References