Hydro Electric Power

On the west bank you will see a group of buildings by the water’s edge. This is Fausa hydroelectric plant, one of the first power stations in the Sunnmøre region. The tiny building with a pitched roof used to house the earliest power plant, commissioned in 1929. The large plant to the left started operating in 1952. The machinist who looked after it all used to live in the little white house closest to the water. Stranda was one of the first villages in the county to get electricity. The first power station was opened as early as 1912. Very few villages in the Sunnmøre region had access to electric power that early, and this contributed to Stranda’s early foray into manufacturing. Furniture production has been particularly important in this area. The first power plant in inner Sunnmøre was built by hotelier Mjelva in Geiranger. He needed electricity for his Hotel Union and sorted it all out himself in 1907. Today it is just over 100 years since the first power stations transmitted electricity to cookers and light bulbs round the villages. We now have many power stations, large and small. They exploit the country’s ready access to mountains, water and precipitation. We are self-sufficient in clean electricity and are the world’s sixth largest producer of hydroelectric power.