Herøya

Herøya is a peninsula in the municipality of Porsgrunn, Norway. It is located between the fjords of Frierfjord to the west and Gunneklevfjord to the east, at the mouth of Telemarksvassdraget. The name stems from the word hare because of the large number of these that is said to have inhabited the previous island (øya).

The peninsula features a large industrial park that was founded in 1928 and contains major facilities of Norsk Hydro, Yara, and REC (ScanWafer subsidiary). The area is served by the Bratsberg Line. 2,700 people work on the 1.5 km² peninsula that has about 30 companies, most of which are subsidiaries of Norsk Hydro, including Hydro's research park with 350 employees. A populated area south of the peninsula itself, which was initially housing for the Hydro employees, is also considered part of Herøya as a suburb of the city of Porsgrunn.

Herøya also has a local football club, participating in the Norwegian 5th division. The club stadium, Herøya Stadion, has a capacity in surplus of 2000.

Originally an island that was used for agriculture, in 1928 Norsk Hydro decided to locate a new artificial fertilizer factory there, Hydro Porsgrunn, and in just 16 months both this factory and a shipping port for Norwegian saltpeter (calcium nitrate) were built. In the process, the narrow sound between the island and the mainland was mostly filled up, thus transforming the island to a peninsula. The reason Hydro wanted to establish itself in the Grenland region was the proximity to limestone, one of the necessary components in the fertilizer, Calcium nitrate. Norsk Hydro had previously had to build its fertilizer plants in Notodden (in 1907) and Rjukan (in 1909) because technology at that time didn't allow for efficient transport of electricity long distances from the power plants to the place of use. But in the 1920s technology had developed and it was possible to locate the plants close to the natural resources instead of close to the hydro electric power plants, that were located in the mountains in Northern Telemark.

...
Wikipedia