History

The engineering and manufacturing environment at Lodalen in Oslo was established more than 150 years ago, and was for many generations owned by Kværner; for some years also by GE Energy. In 2007 it was bougth by the Norwegian company NLI. Gradually the Rainpower Group has assembled a broad range of competence comprising technology development, engineering, hydropower laboratory, governor, excitation, generator and manufacturing.

Hydropower in Norway

Norwegian hydropower is by and large the history of Kværner Brug - the company which was established in Lodalen in 1853. In the early days the company manufactured a bit of everything, also castings for the building industry. However, a milestone was reached when the first turbine was delivered. It had 230 horsepower, and a hydraulic head of eleven metres. The first turbine for a hydropower electricity plant was delivered in 1890 - a Pelton turbine in 1895 and a Francis turbine in 1898.

Hydraulic head between 250 and 600 metres is typical in Norway. Kværner realized early the importance of high head turbines - Francis and Pelton - and developed these to a level which made them attractive on the international markets. This has resulted in significant exports of turbines from Norway.

Good access to energy from our many water falls means that Norway and Norwegian industry since the early 20th century has generated a significant share of their energy from hydropower; this has continued up till now. The large boom in Norwegian hydropower development took place after the second World War when development of these resources took place with a great deal of optimism. During the last years there have been fewer new hydropower projects, but there is still a lot of refurbishment of older and newer power plants taking place.