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Akoa's 346kt/y greenfield smdter is due to start up in April 2007. Built by Beehtel, it will be supplied with hydro dectricity and rely on imported pre-baked anodes so minimising its environmental impact on this island state.
Over the years, global engineering, construction and project management company Beehtel has worked in some 140 countries but until recently, the organisation had never undertaken a project in Iceland.
That changed in 2003, when Alcoa approached Beehtel to build a 346kt/y aluminium smelter on Iceland's eastern coast. The Fjardaál project, now well underway, is Alcoa's first new greenfield smelter in 20 years - and Bechtel's first experience in this island nation near the Arctic Circle. At the budgeted cost, it also is the largest private investment in Iceland. The project site is at the inner edge of a large, glacier-fed fjord that empties into the Norwegian Sea. Like most of Iceland, the area is sparsely populated - the nearest settlement, Rey8arfjor8ur, is about 8km away and is home to about 650 residents. Iceland as a whole claims fewer than 300000 inhabitants, about 70% of whom live in Reykjavik, the capital city located on the south-western coastland.
Iceland is volcanic - most homes in towns are served for heat and hot water from renewable geothermal energy. As a result, domestic heating creates virtually no greenhouse gas emissions - something few, if any, other countries can claim.
The climate is much more temperate than the country's name or northern latitude would suggest. At the Fjardaál project site, winter temperatures hover around 00C, and there is little snow accumulation. Beehtel is operating projects in several places where it gets colder, including Alaska, Russia, and Kazakhstan. Even Montreal, home to Bechtel's global Aluminium Centre of Excellence, gets more snow.
Fjardaál - Icelandic for 'aluminium of the fjords' - is an eight-hour drive or a onehour flight from Reykjavik. The drive can be worth it, says Beehtel Project Manager Joe Wahba, because it offers a scenic tour featuring glaciers, geysers, and big waterfalls. "It's like a combined getaway to Alaska, Yellowstone National Park, and Hawaii without being in the USA," he says.
The project site offers a spectacular view of hearby snowcapped mountains, at in spring and autum one can see the...