Homes and businesses on the Lilleby site in Trondheim
Veidekke Eiendom AS is buying into the old smelting plant area at Lilleby in Trondheim. The current owners of the Lilleby site are Fesil and Labek. The three companies are now forming the property company Lilleby Eiendom AS. The next step is to assess the opportunities to be found in the area, especially with a view to developing homes and commercial property.
The area, totalling around 22 acres, was previously primarily an industrial site used by the Ila and Lilleby smelting works. Production finally came to a halt in 2002, since when the area has been unused. The three partners now wish to assess how the area can be developed for the future.
"There are great opportunities in this area and we will be looking at homes, commercial areas and perhaps also areas for the public sector on the Lilleby site," says Veidekke Eiendom's regional manager Rune Forbord. He is pleased that Veidekke Eiendom has become part owner of this historic site, but he stresses that it will be a long time before they know what it will be used for.
"We're talking about a large area, close to other residential areas at Lade, which gives us the opportunity to plan for a comprehensive development which will serve both the city and the immediate locality. We can take a long term view here and we want to take the initiative to begin a dialogue with relevant partners. To begin with, this means the City of Trondheim, which naturally has a key role to play in such processes," says Forbord.
Possible trial production of solar cell silicon
The Lilleby site is currently zoned for industrial use. Rezoning for residential use would take several years and during this period Fesil is considering starting trial production of silicon for solar cells in the old smelting works. Their subsidiary Fesil Sunergy has already tried out small scale production, together with Sintef among others, to test a new method of manufacturing solar cell silicon.
"The Lilleby site is unsuitable for heavy industry in the long term. We are therefore very happy that Veidekke Eiendom is joining in the development of this area. We can however use Lilleby for trial production of solar cell silicon from the beginning of 2009 whilst we find a new location for long term production," says Einar Øxnevad Hagen. He stresses that the large scale manufacture of silicon requires very special conditions and a large investment.
"It has been obvious to us for some time that Lilleby is not suitable for large scale, heavy industry. By developing the area we will gain a unique opportunity to realise values so that we will be able to invest in a modern and more environmentally friendly facility for more long term production of silicon. We certainly wish that this will be in some other place than in Trøndelag, but for the moment we cannot say where," says Øxnevad Hagen.
For further information:
Rune Forbord, Regional Manager, Veidekke Eiendom, mobile 91 77 19 42
Einar Øxnevad Hagen, Managing Director, Fesil Holding AS, mobile 90 01 68 90
Erik Solberg, Chartered Engineer, Labek AS, mobile 92 28 66 80
Some facts:
New company formed
A new property company, Lilleby Eiendom AS, is being formed as part of the development of the Lilleby site. The new company will be responsible for carrying out the development of the area. The owners of this new company are Veidekke Eiendom who owns 50 % and Fesil and Labek who owns 50% together. Labek is owned by the Solberg family, the former owners of Ila & Lilleby Smelteverker AS.
Planning and analyses
Lilleby Eiendom AS will commence work on planning, analyses and initial studies during the course of spring 2008. The company expects that a formal public planning process should be able to begin during 2009. The work of clearing the area will begin at the same time. This will also mean assessing the volume of waste to be cleared and the proper handling of any hazardous waste which may be involved, so that the area can be cleared and cleaned up.
Production of solar cell silicon
Fesil has been working with Sintef and other partners for many years on producing silicon of suitable quality for making solar cells, without going down the path traditionally used by the solar energy industry to make an ultra pure quality of silicon - which is in very short supply. The aim is to produce an alternative silicon product which is significantly cheaper than the traditional solar cell materials and which can be produced in greater quantities and of the correct purity. Silicon for use in solar cells must be extremely pure. The ambition is that the alternative material will make future solar cells at least as efficient as today's.
The process the partners have developed has been named "Solsilc". To enable production in the old smelting works at Lilleby, the plant first needs to be tailored for the purpose. Because recovery of the metal is done not in a normal smelting plant but in a specially tailored production process. The trial production now being planned will be handled by Fesil Sunergy, a company set up to produce solar cell silicon.