Excursions

Registration for the excursions is made in the conference registration form. If you are already registered for the conference, just log in to your registration and add a tour.

Tours #1a+1b are now joined

Tour #1a:
Excursion to hydroelectric labs at NTNU

Water Power Lab at NTNU Photo: Øyvind Buljo/NTNU + Liv Randi Hultgreen/NTNU

Thursday June 15th you will get a guided tour at the Water Power laboratory and the Norwegian Hydrotechnical laboratory at the NTNU campus Gløshaugen. Here you will get insight into R&D on e.g.:

Norwegian Hydrotechnical Laboratory Photo: NTNU

Next we continue to get a guided tour at one of Europe's largest hydraulic laboratories, the Norwegian Hydrotechnical Laboratory (Vassdragslaboratoriet at NTNU – Valgrinda), where a large number of physical experiments on watercourses, dam safety, sediment management and hydropower plants have been and are carried out. The hydraulic laboratory is used for PhD research, for commercial projects and for education of MSc students. We will show some of the experimental setup, instruments and run demonstrations. Models in the lab have been important for optimizing design of hydropower plants, dam safety, flood defense structures, sediment problems, and also for environmental studies, for example layout of weirs, design of fish ladders and impacts of hydropeaking.

View video from the Norwegian Hydrotechnical Laboratory (YouTube)

Tour #1b:
Nidelva & Leirfossen

Nidelva river in Trondheim Photo: Kjell T. Næsgaard/NTNU

We will walk downstream to the Austman local brewery, where you may buy dinner. You may also easily return downtown (by walking, local bus or take a taxi), or enjoy Austman.

Tour #2: Gaula and Orkla Rivers

Tour #2 has been cancelled due to low attendance.

Tour #3:
Overnight excursion to Surna & Driva National Salmon Rivers (in addition to Gaula and Orkla)

Orkla

Orkla was developed for hydropower generation in the years from 1978 to 1985, with 5 large hydropower plants with a total capacity of 320 MW and 3 large artificial reservoirs. In addition, more than 9 small hydropower plants with total capacity 11.5 MW have been built during the last 20 years. 

Surna

We continue to River Surna. The largest HP operator in Surna is the Trollheim HPP , operated by Statkraft since 1968 (130 MW, 851 GWh), which recently have been modernised through a relicensing process with several new mitigation measures. We will have dinner at a salmon lodge in River Surna, where we also will get a historical perspective of the importance of salmon fishing.

Surna river's location in Norway. Image: Store norske leksikon/Statens kartverk. Licence: NLOD

Driva

Next morning we will a ferry towards "Drivaregionen" and Sunndalsøra, the outlet of River Driva. River Driva is known to be among the anadromous rivers in the world, where salmon historically can migrate highest above sea level (ca 580 m.a.s.l.).

Along this quite pristine National Salmon River, we will have the first stop at Snøvassmelan , where a manmade barrier to stop all up migrating salmon is constructed. This is part of a restoration strategy to save the salmon population in Driva from extinction, through a eradication strategy of the parasite gyrodactylus salaris (first detected here in1980). After the parasite have significantly reduced the salmon population, River Driva has gained attractiveness as a seatrout river. Water sports as river rafting and canyon expeditions are popular activities in the upper parts of Driva.

Further upstream we will visit the high head storage Driva HPP , operated by Trønder Energi since 1973. One of the first HPP in Norway with hydropeaking ramping restrictions, and by-pass valve to mitigate accidental turbine flow drop out.

Driva river's location in Norway. Image: Store norske leksikon/Statens kartverk. Licence: NLOD

Gaula

After lunch at Oppdal, we enter into the Gaula catchment, and will follow this large National Salmon River until its estuary in the fjord (Trondheimsfjorden). On our way we will inform about and visit river restoration projects, salmon fishing, riverine biodiversity, management regimes and multi pressures. A visit to Sokna HP , in the side tributary Lundesokna, operated by Trønder Energy since 1964 will be the last stop before the bus will return to Trondheim. Here we will hear about an ongoing relicensing process to modernise the environmental requirements.