Bremanger Quarry

The “Green Quarry”

Our Bremanger Quarry, also known as the “Green Quarry” or “Green Battery”, is the future renewable energy provider for the region. The characteristics of the Bremanger area are ideal to develop a Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS) facility. This PHS facility can also serve as a green battery for excess hydropower generated elsewhere in Norway. To enable this “Green Battery”, the current extraction process also revolves around sustainability. Major innovative techniques allow us to make optimum use of gravity, which means the stone can be broken in an energy-neutral way. This is achieved with minimal impact on the landscape.

How does Pumped Hydryo Storage work?

1. Renewable energy
Norway has a huge hydro-power and wind energy potential, onshore and offshore. The recent development of wind farms in the vicinity of Bremanger underlines this potential and more developments are planned in the area.

2. Energy storage
A volume of 180 million m3 of water at an average height of 300m above sea level equates to about 150 GWh of potential energy storage. This equals a full month of household energy usage for a city like Bergen.

3. Main infrastructure
As a result of the current activities, investments in and the development of the main infrastructure elements like the tunnel, workshops, access roads and utilities have already been done. A basin is created within the mountain by extracting the rock. This process takes places inside the mountain to minimize the impact on the environment.

4. The tunnel
The tunnel between the reservoir and the sea is large enough to install the penstock pipes, valves and booster pump(s), and provides enough space for operation and maintenance.

5. The facility
The facility is located directly at the sea, where the future powerhouse and transformer station will be constructed. Workshops, offices, etc are already present.

6. Reversible pump-turbine
A reversible pump-turbine/generator acts as a combined pump and turbine generator unit (Francis turbine). The system is linked to the Norway grid, through which the consumed and produced power is distributed. At times of low electrical demand, excess generation capacity is used to pump water into the basin.

Current “Green Quarry” activities

1. Drilling and blasting

The quarry face is blasted by making use of high-precision drilling and state-of-the art planning of the blast.
2. Horizontal driving

The transport to the shaft has a low carbon footprint:
- the latest dump truck models are used
- trucks only drive short and horizontal distances
3. Breaking in the shaft

The gravity based breaking process starts when the rocks are dumped in the shaft. The impact from the approx. 180 meter free fall results in the first breakup of the rocks.
4. Crusher

The operation of the crushers in a controlled space allows for all-year production with no impact on the surrounding.
5. Generating electricity

The conveyor belts with a length of approx. 1,5km have a downward angle of 15%, which is ideal for gravity-based activation. The electricity generated by the belts is used to power the crushers.
6. Underground transport

Loading of materials is gravity based. By opening the hatches below the stockpiles, the stones flow naturally onto the conveyor belt, and use gravity to transport itself into the vessel.
7. Loading the ship

Close to the open sea the sheltered bay provides a unique loading location to safely and efficiently load the largest vessels all-year round. The floating loading system has a capacity up to 5,000 tons per hour.

Bestone®

Bestone® conforms to the highest quality standards as a result of a unique combination of the following three properties:
• Homogeneity: Europe’s most homogeneous stone
• hardness: the low crushing value prolongs the life for any application
• high skid resistance: provides lasting skid-resistant, safe roads

With more than 1 billion tons of stone in reserve, Bremanger Quarry can guarantee delivery of consistently high-quality stone in the long term.

Applications

Road construction
The combination of the unique properties means Bestone® is by far the most common primary stone used for infrastructure in the Benelux. As a result, Bestone® makes a significant contribution to the quality and durability of the Dutch road network, which forms a part of the world’s best road networks when it comes to safety and noise reduction.

Maritime projects
Bestone® is also frequently used in maritime projects. Thorough research has been carried out into the use of Bestone® Widegrade® in breakwaters. The research shows that this material is extremely suitable for use in the core of a breakwater. It is also very convenient that the logistics and placement of this material is relatively easy. This has been proven in the construction of Maasvlakte 2 (the Netherlands) as well as the breakwater in Calais (France). See projects for more information.

Fallpipe vessels
Bremanger Quarry has delivered large volumes of 1/5″ marine building stone using the Boskalis fallpipe vessels, Jan de Nul, Tideway, and Van Oord.
Investments in recent years have made Bremanger Quarry a reliable supplier of offshore products in fallpipe vessels

Bremanger Quarry distinguishes itself thanks to its:

Flexibility: 24/7 loading

Speed: due to the high load capacity (up to 5,000 tons per hour), the location close to the open sea, and possibility to load without mooring (on DP), a very short loading cycle can be achieved

High production and large storage capacity

The right quality!