Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian oil and energy and integrated aluminium company, headquartered in Oslo. The company was founded on December 2, 1905 by Sam Eyde, exploiting a novel technology for producing artificial fertilizers by fixing nitrogen from air. The technology had been developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland. Hydro's first factory was built at Notodden followed up with another at Rjukan, Tinn. Norsk Hydro logo. ... County Oslo NO-03 Landscape Viken Municipality NO-0301 Administrative centre Oslo Mayor (2004) Per Ditlev-Simonsen (H) Official language form Neutral Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 224 454 km² 426 km² 0. ... December 2 is the 336th day (337th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1905 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Sam Eyde, (29 October 1866 - 21 June 1940) was a Norwegian engineer and industrialist born in Arendal. ... Fertilizers are chemicals given to plants with the intention of promoting growth; they are usually applied either via the soil or by foliar spraying. ... General Name, Symbol, Number Nitrogen, N, 7 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 15 (VA), 2, p Density 1. ... Kristian Birkeland (December 13, 1867 - June 15, 1917) was born in Christiania (Oslo today) and wrote his first scientific paper at the age of 18. ... County Telemark Landscape Municipality NO-0807 Administrative centre Notodden Mayor (2003) Bjarne Bakken (Ap) Official language form Neutral Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 120 919 km² 852 km² 0. ... Rjukan is a municipality in Tinn, Telemark with approximately 3500 inhabitants. ... County Telemark Landscape Municipality NO-0826 Administrative centre Rjukan Mayor (2005) Erik Haatvedt (Ap) Official language form Neutral Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 28 2,045 km² 1,854 km² 0. ...

Hydro's fertilizer business was spun off as a separately stock-listed company under the name of Yara on March 26 2004. Hydro distributed all its Yara shares to Hydro's shareholders and presently has no ownership in Yara. Norwegian company Yara is a world leading supplier of plant nutrients in the form of mineral fertilizers. ...

Hydro presently has two core businesses, Oil & Energy and Aluminium. The company is the second largest oil and gas operator on the Norwegian continental shelf and the third largest integrated aluminium company world wide. In 1999 Hydro acquired another Norwegian oil and gas company Saga Petroleum, and in 2002 Hydro acquired the leading German aluminium producer VAW from the German utility company E.on. Hydro has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent ownership interest in the company. There are total of around 36,000 employees. From 2001, Eivind Reiten has been the CEO. 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In May, 2005, Norsk Hydro AS became a major backer of a Portuguese wave-farming project to produce electricity from wave power. The project will use Pelamis P-750 Wave Energy Converters developed by Ocean Power Delivery to produce an estimated 2.25 megawatts of renewable energy in the subsequent year. The megawatt (symbol: MW) is a unit for measuring power corresponding to one million (106) watts. ... Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat flows. ...

During the Second World War the Rjukan plant was the only location in Europe which produced heavy water, and consequently was the target of several commando and air raids which eventually resulted in the plant's destruction and later reconstruction. (This story was portrayed in the Kirk Douglas movie The Heroes of Telemark). Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... Heavy water is dideuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. It is chemically the same as normal water, H2O, but the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found in the nucleus of any hydrogen atom. ... The Norwegian heavy water sabotage were a series of actions taken by Norwegian saboteurs during World War II to prevent the Germans from acquiring heavy water which could be used to produce nuclear weapons. ... Kirk Douglas in Champion Kirk Douglas (born December 9, 1916) is an American actor. ... Heroes of Telemark is an American war movie produced in the 1960s. ...

External links

• Official website (http://www.hydro.com)
• Company history website (http://www.hydro.com/en/about/history/)
• Pelamis Wave Energy Converter (http://www.oceanpd.com/Pelamis/default.html)