Alta power station

Infobox_Power_Station
station_name=Alta


location=Alta, Norway
owner=Statkraft
status=
fuel_type=Hydroelectricity
mine_type=
conveyance=
cooling_water=
technology=
combined_cycle=
turbines=2
reciprocating_engines=
pumped_storage=No
max_capacity=150 MW
commissioned=
decommissioned=
extra=

Alta power station is a hydroelectric power station located on the Alta-Kautokeino River in Finnmark, Norway and is operated by Statkraft.

The station is located 40 kilmeters from the mouth of the Alta River, that receives most of the water from Finnmarksvidda. Below the power station the river has salmon. The station consists of two generators, at 100 MW and 50 MW, respectively. The station utilises a 185 meter fall from the 18 kilometer long reservoir Virdnejavri. From the 110 meter tall dam to the end of the power station the river is dry for two kilometers.

Controversy

The background for the controversy was a published plan by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) that called for the construction of a dam and hydroelectric power plant that would create an artificial lake and inundate the Sami village of Máze. After the initial plan met political resistance, a less ambitious project was proposed that would cause less displacement of Sami residents and less disruption for reindeer migration and wild salmon fishing.

In 1978, the popular movement against development of the Alta-Kautokeino waterway (Folkeaksjonen mot utbygging av Alta-Kautokeinovassdraget) was founded, creating an organizational platform for first opposing and then resisting construction work. This group and others filed for an injunction in Norwegian courts against the Norwegian government to prevent construction from commencing.

In the fall of 1979, as construction was ready to start, two acts of civil disobedience started. At the construction site itself at Stilla, a number of activists sat down and blocked the machines from starting their work; and at the same time, a number of Sami activists camped outside the Norwegian parliament, starting a hunger strike.

The prime minister at the time, Odvar Nordli, pre-empted such an escalation by promising a review of the parliament's decision, but the Norwegian parliament subsequently confirmed its decision to dam the river. More than one thousand protesters chained themselves to the site when the work started again in January 1981. The police responded with large forces, and at one point 10% of all Norwegian police officers were stationed in Alta and quartered in a cruise ship. The protesters were forcibly removed by police.

For the first time since World War II, individuals were arrested and charged with violating laws against rioting. The central organizations for the Sami people discontinued all cooperation with the Norwegian government. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government in early 1982, at which point organized opposition to the power plant ceased, and the power plant was built.