Technical toursAccording to a local legend, the reindeer hunter and farmer Hans Olsen Aasen (1557-1673) was hunting up in Storvola one day in 1644, a mountain range one mile east of Røros. Here he shot a reindeer goat. In the death struggle, the reindeer kicked moss and heather on the ground and Hans caught sight of a shining rock. This was found by the first copper stone that gave rise to Røros Copper Works. The first furnace building in Røros was completed in 1646. When we are arriving Røros we will first have a guided tour in the Olav's Mine. There has been mining in the Røros region since the 1640’s. The tour begins in the mining museum, with an introduction to the region’s geology, and how the mines were operated. Together with a guide, we walk 500 m underground through tunnels in Nyberget Mine and Olav’s Mine and 50 m down to the massive Miner’s Hall. Sound effects and lighting add to the authentic feel. We will organize a half-day guided tour to Leirfossene Hydro Power Plant. The Leirfossene power plant is an underground run-of-river plant located on the lower part of the Neavassdraget watercourse (Nidelva River) in Trondheim Municipality. Leirfossene represents a typical state-of-the-art Norwegian hydro plant. The power plant has an installed capacity of 45 MW and an annual average production of 150 GWh. The power plant uses a gross height of fall of 61 metres. The water is transferred by shaft and tunnel from the intake reservoir Lake Øvre Leirfoss and down to the power plant. From there the water goes through an approximately 1.5 km-long outlet tunnel that discharges downstream in Lake Nedre Leirfoss.
Generator hall in the new Leirfossene Power plant Leirfossene power plant was commissioned in October 2008 after two years of construction. It is built inside the mountain and replaced the Øvre Leirfoss and Nedre Leirfoss power plants from 1901 and 1910 respectively.
The two old plants were not demolished but converted into small power plants that utilize the minimum water discharge that flows in the Nidelva riverbed parallel to the tunnel system for the new Leirfossene plant. The old Nedre Leirfossene power plant The plants are owned and operated by |
