Olidan Power Station
Encyclopedia
Trollhättan Municipality
Trollhättan Municipality is a municipality in Västra Götaland County in western Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Trollhättan....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. First opened in 1910, it was the first large scale attempt at generating electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
from water in Sweden. The construction of Olidan led to the founding of the Kungliga Vattenfallsstyrelsen (Royal Waterfall Board), which later became Vattenfall
Vattenfall
Vattenfall is a Swedish power company. The name Vattenfall is Swedish for waterfall, and is an abbreviation of its original name, Royal Waterfall Board...
.
While the first four turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
s were put into service in 1910, construction continued, and another four were put into operation by 1914. Due to increasing demand, as well as increasing capacity due to the regulation of Göta älv
Göta älv
The Göta is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat at the city of Gothenburg on the western coast of Sweden. It is located in Götaland, with the river itself being a site of early Geatish settlement. The length is 93 km. Often the combination of Göta älv and Klarälven is mentioned...
, another five were then built. By 1921, Olidan carried a total of 13 turbines. 10 of these are still functioning, while the other three were cannibalized for parts. However, it is currently rare for more than three to be generating at the one time. Each turbine has a capacity of 10 MW.
When Olidan were completed in 1924, planning began for Hojum Power Station
Hojum Power Station
Hojum Power Station is the second hydroelectric power station in Trollhättan, the first one being the older Olidan Power Station. While the first two turbines were taken into service in 1938, a third one was built and started in 1992...
, which came into service in 1938.