Utsira is a
municipality|Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...
in
Rogalandis a county in Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum-industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%.-Etymology:...
county||-|Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 431 municipalities...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. Utsira was separated from
Torvastad-History:The parish of Torvestad was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . On 1 February 1855 the district Haugesund was separated from Torvastad to form a municipality of its own. The split left Torvastad with 3,242 inhabitants. Further division took place when Skåre broke out on 1...
on 1 July 1924.
The municipality consists of an island located in the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
, 18 km west of
Haugesundis a town and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Haugesund was separated from Torvastad as a town and municipality of its own in 1855. The rural municipality of Skåre was merged with Haugesund 1 January 1958. Haugesund is a small municipality, only 73 km²...
. Utsira is the smallest municipality of Norway in population and the second smallest in area (after
KvitsøyKvitsøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the smallest municipality in Norway . Kvitsøy was separated from Mosterøy on 1 January 1923.The municipality is an archipelago situated northwest of the coast of the Stavanger peninsula...
).
The
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
forms of the name was just
Síri (nominative) and
Síra (genitive). The first element
ut (meaning "out" or "external") was added in the 16th Century.
Utsira is a
municipality|Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...
in
Rogalandis a county in Norway, bordering Hordaland, Telemark, Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder. It is the center of the Norwegian petroleum-industry, and as a result of this, Rogaland has the lowest unemployment rate of any county in Norway, 1.1%.-Etymology:...
county||-|Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 431 municipalities...
,
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
. Utsira was separated from
Torvastad-History:The parish of Torvestad was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 . On 1 February 1855 the district Haugesund was separated from Torvastad to form a municipality of its own. The split left Torvastad with 3,242 inhabitants. Further division took place when Skåre broke out on 1...
on 1 July 1924.
The municipality consists of an island located in the
North SeaThe North Sea is a marginal, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean. It is more than long and wide, with an area of around...
, 18 km west of
Haugesundis a town and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Haugesund was separated from Torvastad as a town and municipality of its own in 1855. The rural municipality of Skåre was merged with Haugesund 1 January 1958. Haugesund is a small municipality, only 73 km²...
. Utsira is the smallest municipality of Norway in population and the second smallest in area (after
KvitsøyKvitsøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is the smallest municipality in Norway . Kvitsøy was separated from Mosterøy on 1 January 1923.The municipality is an archipelago situated northwest of the coast of the Stavanger peninsula...
).
Name
The
Old NorseOld Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
forms of the name was just
Síri (nominative) and
Síra (genitive). The first element
ut (meaning "out" or "external") was added in the 16th Century. (
SiraSira is a village located within the municipality of Flekkefjord in south-western Norway. The village is located at the border of the counties Vest-Agder and Rogaland, along European route E39 and the railway Sørlandsbanen. The village is served by Sira Station....
is also the name of the border river between Rogaland and
Vest-Agder is a county in Norway, bordering Rogaland to the west and Aust-Agder to the east. In 2002 there were 157,851 inhabitants, which is 3.4% of the total population in Norway. Its area is 7,281 km²...
.) The inhabitants still call the island just
Sira and an inhabitant is called a
sirabu. The meaning of the name
Sira is unknown (maybe "strong stream").
Coat-of-arms
The
coat-of-armsA coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways. Historically, they were used by knights to identify them apart from enemy...
is from modern times. They were granted on 23 July 1982. The arms show the
light beamA light beam or beam of light is a narrow projection of light energy radiating from a source into a beam. Sunlight is a natural example of a light beam when filtered through various mediums...
s emerging from the local
lighthouseA lighthouse is a tower, building, or framework designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire and used as an aid to navigation and to pilots at sea....
. The lighthouse was founded in 1844 and is one of the main landmarks on the municipality.
History
The Utsira church is from 1785. There is also a finding from the
Stone AgeThe Stone Age is a broad prehistoric time period during which humans widely used stone for toolmaking.Stone tools were made from a variety of different sorts of stone. For example, flint and chert were shaped for use as cutting tools and weapons, while basalt and sandstone were used for ground...
on the island.
The highest Lighthouse light in Norway, at
AMSLThe term above mean sea level refers to the elevation or altitude of any object, relative to the average sea level datum. AMSL is used extensively in radio by engineers to determine the coverage area a station will be able to reach...
, resides at Utsira.
In 2004,
Norsk HydroNorsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent...
installed a combined
wind-HydrogenOne of the key issues with wind energy is its intermittent nature. This has led to numerous methods of storing energy including the production of hydrogen through the electrolysis of water. This hydrogen is subsequently used to generate electricity during periods when demand can not be matched by...
utility on Utsira. It is a full scale pilot project for energy self-sufficiency for a remote community. In periods when there is surplus wind energy, the excess power will be used for generating
hydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
by
electrolysisIn chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using an electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially highly important as a stage in the separation of elements from naturally-occurring sources such as ores using an electrolytic...
. The hydrogen is stored, and is available for power generation in periods where there is little wind. Additional to this an energy storing
flywheelA flywheel is a mechanical device with a significant moment of inertia used as a storage device for rotational energy. Flywheels resist changes in their rotational speed, which helps steady the rotation of the shaft when a fluctuating torque is exerted on it by its power source such as a...
exists to help out when for a short time more power is needed.
Birding
Utsira is known as the best birding site in Norway. There have been 317 different species recorded on Utsira, of which 23 are new to Norway.
Shipping Forecast
Utsira (under the spelling
Utsire) gives its name to two of the sea areas of the British
Shipping ForecastThe Shipping Forecast is a four-times-daily BBC radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the UK Meteorological Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
.
External links