Was researching sediment transport – ended up getting cheap electricity for all of Greenland

By Ole Ellekrog

In April of 1980 the Danish geographer Bent Hasholt ventured into a cabin near Tasiilaq in East Greenland to find a water level gauge. He was all alone, far from civilization – and scared to death. A few moments ago, leading straight to the hut, he had seen polar bear tracks.

Consequently, it was with great relief that he found the hut without polar bears and but with the water level gauge he was looking for. Not long after, the polar bear was shot and a couple of days later, Bent Hasholt put up his water level gauge in a lively river nearby.

So, despite the danger and the hard work that followed, Bent Hasholt is convinced that it was worth the effort. Because the water measurements back then played a significant role in making the greater part of Greenland self-sufficient in energy.

Bent Hasholt was in Greenland as a leader of the research station Sermilik – which he continued to be until 2009. But the project with the water level gauge which he started in 1980 did not actually have anything to do with his professional research.

The water level gauge that Bent Hasholt collected in a hut in 1980 and installed in a nearby river.
Photo: Bent Hasholt

That research was focused on measuring sediment transport from the meltwater of the close-by Mittivakkat glacier.  The research was used by Bent Hasholt and his colleagues to gather fundamental knowledge on how rivers form and meander over time. But he missed being involved with research that also mattered to the society he lived in – research that could be used in real life.

“At the university, we already spoke at that point about also conducting research that would benefit society,” Bent Hasholt says.

The municipal board was interested

And Bent Hasholt’s research would, indeed, end up benefiting society. Because his measurements from the river were used to check if enough water ran through it to build a hydroelectric power plant by Tasiilaq.

Before that Bent had made a calculation that used data from rain gauges in the surrounding area and from a map from 1933. The calculation included factors such as rainfall levels, meltwater, cathment areas, and the drop of the water. In the end, the conclusion was clear: Enough water flowed through the streams for Tasiilaq to get its electricity usage covered entirely through hydro power.

As the water level gauge had been installed, the municipality had to warn citizens not to move it.
Photo: Bent Hasholt

Bent Hasholt published an article about this conclusion in the geographical journal Geografisk Tidsskrift and sent the article off to the municipal office in Tasiilaq. The municipal director was interested and, before long, Bent Hasholt had presented his plan to the municipal board. It was at this point that he was flown by helicopter to the hut nearby to get a water level gauge.

But despite the interest and the watertight calculations, it was not until 2004 that the hydroelectric power plant in Tasiilaq was opened. Long before the turn of the century, though, Bent Hasholt would help start a much larger Greenlandic hydroelectric power plant.

Expensive drops in Buksefjord

Grønlandsk Tekniske Organisation, the Danish government body in charge of Greenland’s power supply at the time, had heard of Bent Hasholt’s idea for a local hydroelectric power plant by Tasiilaq. They already had plans for larger hydroelectric power plants in other parts of Greenland. So, they hired him to make new calculations – first by Narsasuaq in South Greenland and later by Buksefjord south of Nuuk.

In 1981, he made the fundamental calculations for what, in 1993, would turn into the Buksefjord Hydroelectric Power Plant which supplies Nuuk with electricity today. Here, he put up rain gauges om different locations upstream from the power plant – and later picked up the rain drops by helicopter.

“Those were some expensive drops, but it was completely necessary to get an impression of whether there was enough water,” Bent Hasholt said.

And there was a specific reason that the Buksefjord Hydroelectric Power Plant was placed relatively far from Nuuk and needs a cable of 5,376 meters across the Ameralik fjord – the world’s longest free spanning power line.

”The reason was that there aren’t any glaciers in Buksefjorden. This means that we can expect the same amount of water, also in the future when the glaciers will melt away in other places. So, it was because of the stable amount of water that we chose the location in Buksefjorden,” Bent Hasholt said.

“Just in the time that I have observed it, the Mittivakkat Glacier has shrunk by 20 percent.”
– Bent Hasholt

Problems with melting glaciers

But while the Buksefjord Hydroelectric Power Plant gets the vast majority of its water from rain and snow, the same is not the case in Tasiilaq. Here, the power plant gets part of its water from small, local glaciers that are all disappearing.

“Just in the time that I have observed it, the Mittivakkat Glacier has shrunk by 20 percent and other glaciers in the area are also losing mass. And without the additional water from glaciers, we are nearing a point where the power plant in Tasiilaq alone cannot supply the town with electricity,” Bent Hasholt said.

Before it was installed in a river in 1980, the water level gauge had already been used for other purposes. Here, it’s seen in a photo from 1972.
Photo: Bent Hasholt