Turning a hydropower legacy into future industrial circularity

Høyanger’s story begins in the early 1900s, when the small town by Sognefjorden was transformed for the first time. The steep, fjord-cut mountains surrounding the village were the foundation for turning the rural village to a century of industrial potential few places could match. The remote community became one of Norway’s key aluminium production sites. The aluminium operations, today owned by Hydro, quickly became a cornerstone of both the local economy and identity.

A new dawn

Høyanger managed their legacy wisely and became much more than a production site. Over the decades, supporting industries, supplier networks and infrastructure grew up around it and Høyanger became an industrial town in every sense. 

Like many long-standing industrial communities, Høyanger has faced shifting tides. Global competition, energy costs, changing environmental regulations and economic crises have tested the resilience of traditional aluminium production and associated industries.

A huge transition point was when the Fundo Wheels plant closed, leaving several hundred without work. Instead of wallowing in sadness, the community gathered their forces in an ambitious effort to reimagine Høyanger as a hub where materials, energy, manufacturing and innovation are interlinked in circular value chains. It is in this space that the idea of industrial transformation, symbiosis and circular economy began to gain traction. 

For Invest in Vestland, Høyanger is more than a success story already underway. It’s a demonstration of what industrial transformation can look like — for rural and fjord communities — where geography, natural resources and historical strengths can be retooled for sustainability, not just continuity, like this brownfield transformed to a site for recycled and carbon neutral aluminium. Photo: Charlotte Hartvigsen Lem. 

Focuses on recyling

Today, Hydro has built a new aluminium recycling facility annually processing around 36,000 tonnes of post-consumer aluminium scrap, from sources like vehicles, furniture, packaging or façades.  

On the old brownfields, new businesses are being incubated. These include firms working with composite material recycling, recovery of rare minerals and metals, and re-use of industrial byproducts, like Gjenkraft, who is transforming composite waste from wind mills into high-quality, renewable materials, minimizing environmental impact and benefiting sustainability.

Facilities such as Høyanger Industrial Park and Leira Industrial Park provide space, utilities and flexibility to host production, recycling or processing operations that can tap into existing energy, transport and industrial ecosystems.  

Høyanger is a true industrial legacy forged by water and energy. Abundant hydropower and direct fjord access are the natural resources the makes the site still relevant for the future, by utilsing hydro power to recycle aluminium into production bars. In the beginning of next year, the production will use green hydrogen. Photo: Charlotte Hartvigsen Lem. 

Multiple benefits

The transformation underway in Høyanger offers multiple benefits, not only for the local community but for broader regional, national — even global — goals in climate, sustainability and industrial competitiveness. One obvious effect is job creation. By positioning Høyanger as a circular hub, new, greener industries can locate here, leveraging existing skills, energy infrastructure and industrial culture.

Another very visible goal is reduced emissions. Recycling aluminium requires far less energy than primary aluminium electrolysis. Every ton of scrap recycled reduces carbon emissions and decreases dependence on raw extraction.  

The global uncertainty has also rose awareness for resource security. An outcome of circular strategies help ensure that materials of value, like metals, composites, rare minerals, are reused or recovered; this becomes increasingly important in an uncertain world supply chain environment.

How to remain relevant

What makes Høyanger’s story especially compelling is how it builds upon its industrial heritage, rather than abandoning it. The same river falls, hydropower, existing aluminium plant, industrial land and workforce become advantage points for the next generation of industry.

The key challenges that remain include scaling up circular material flows; mapping and coordinating where scrap, byproducts and secondary raw materials can come from and where they can find new uses, securing enough renewable power at competitive prices, and ensuring that policy, financing and infrastructure keep pace with ambition. 

For Invest in Vestland, Høyanger is more than a success story already underway. It’s a demonstration of what industrial transformation can look like — for rural and fjord communities — where geography, natural resources and historical strengths can be retooled for sustainability, not just continuity.

So: Investors, innovators and movers and shakers, do not hesitate to contact us if we can take you to a site where:

• low-carbon aluminium production is real and growing,
• recycling and secondary materials are central,
• infrastructure (energy, industrial space, transport) exist at scale,
• collaboration across sectors is supported by regional initiatives like Grøn Region Vestland,

By positioning Høyanger as a circular hub, new, greener industries can locate here, leveraging existing skills, energy infrastructure and industrial culture, like these historical unions worker’s banners. Photo: Charlotte Hartvigsen Lem.