Kárahnjúkar

Project details

Project name: Kárahnjúkar

Project location: Jökulsá á Dal River, eastern Iceland

Installed capacity: 690 MW

Project owner: Landsvirkjun

Commission date: 2007

Assessment details

Assessment tool: Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP)

Assessment stage: Operation

Assessment date: August - November 2017, with an on-site assessment on 7-15 September 2017

Assessment overview

Kárahnjúkar is the largest power project in Iceland and accounts for about 1/3 of Landsvirkjun’s and 1/4 of Iceland’s electricity generation.

Kárahnjúkar was built primarily to supply power to Alcoa’s aluminium smelter in Fjardaál, through dedicated transmission lines. This is the largest industrial facility in Iceland, producing about 350,000 tonnes of aluminium per year. At the time of construction, the hydropower project and smelter were more controversial than any other large projects in Iceland’s history.

Over the first ten years of operations, Landsvirkjun and Alcoa have made significant efforts to mitigate their social and environmental impacts, to create socio-economic benefits, to document changes in the region through a transparent process, and to communicate and cooperate with local communities. These issues are reflected in the findings of this assessment, and in a range of high scores that summarise the findings.

Kárahnjúkar meets proven best practice on 11 out of 17 relevant topics and exceeds Basic Good Practice on all six remaining topics.

Sustainability Profile