Hydroelectric power potentials in Greenland

Rain or snow which falls in the fells or on the Ice Sheet represents a potential source of power. The greater the amount of precipitation and the higher up in the fells the water can be dammed, the greater will be its potential power.

A hydroelectric power station draws energy by harnessing the energy of fast-flowing water to drive a turbine. The turbine creates electricity which can be transmitted over large distances to the site at which it is to be utilized. The amount of current produced is regulated by increasing or decreasing the volume of water sent to the turbines.

There are many potential sources of hydroelectric power in Greenland. In southwest Greenland, in particular, there are a number of potentials so large that they greatly exceed the local population's need for electricity.

From around 1975 Greenland Technical Organization (GTO) and the former Greenland Survey embarked upon a systematic survey of Greenland's potential sources of hydroelectric power.

Initially, GTO's interest was centered not only on the small potentials close to urban areas, but also on the very biggest hydroelectric power potentials. At that time, the mining industry was seen as a potential major consumer of energy.

Hydroelectric power stations constructed to supply highly energy-intensive industry would, however, require major investment in feasibility studies and plant. By the end of the 1970s, GTO therefore regarded the surveying of the largest industrial potential sources of hydropower to be less and less a public task. GTO hereinafter concentrated its efforts on documenting the smaller potentials located closer to urban areas, where the organization had an obligation to supply energy and ensure that the energy produced was sold.

Greenland Self-Government's energy company, Nukissiorfiit, has taken up GTO's duty to supply towns and settlements as its primary mission, and in 1993 Greenland's first hydroelectric power station was ready to supply Nuuk with energy for heat and power. Read more about Greenland's hydroelectric power stations here.

While hydropower is occasionally looked at in connection with investigations by various mining companies, today there are no authorities or companies that actively promote Greenland's other industrial hydropower potentials with respect to international energy-intensive companies.

However, Asiaq - Greenland Survey performs regular hydrological measurements at a number of selected sites, thus accumulating a growing bank of knowledge with respect to future opportunities for a number of Greenland's as yet unexploited hydropower resources.