Soral

Soral is a municipality in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.

History

Soral is first mentioned in 1236 as Sorraz.

Geography

Soral has an area, as of 2009, of 2.95 square kilometers (1.14 sq mi). Of this area, 2.44 km² (0.94 sq mi) or 82.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.12 km² (0.046 sq mi) or 4.1% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 0.37 km² (0.14 sq mi) or 12.5% is settled (buildings or roads).

Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 6.1% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.7%. Power and water infrastructure as well as other special developed areas made up 2.7% of the area Out of the forested land, 2.7% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.4% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 62.4% is used for growing crops and 3.7% is pastures, while 16.6% is used for orchards or vine crops.

The municipality is the southern most municipality of the canton and lies on the Swiss-French border between Saint-Julien-en-Genevois and Viry, both in the Haute-Savoie department.

Hydro Husnes

Hydro Husnes, formerly Sør-Norge Aluminium AS or SØRAL is one of seven aluminium producers in Norway.

The company is located in Husnes, Kvinnherad. The plant includes facilities for producing raw aluminium by electrolysis, casthouse for casting extrusion ingots, silos for storing aluminium oxide and a dock. The plant has 240 employees and a net production of 180,000 metric tons.

History

The idea of an smelting plant in Kvinnherad was conceived in 1959, after two seasons of very poor results for the local fishing industry. With the second wave of industrialization sweeping over Norway, it was decided that Husnes, a remote, flat area with good access to shipping lanes and access to the massive electric power needed, would be an ideal site for a smelting plant for aluminium. Following a prolonged period of preparation and paperwork, Sør-Norge Aluminium, or SØRAL for short, was formed in June 29, 1962, with 1.000.000 NOK (10.500.000 NOK in 2014) in invested capital. Construction of the plant itself began the following year, and the first production line, "Hall A", opened for production in November 1965. The secondary production line, "Hall B", opened in March 1966, and in October 1966, the plant was officially opened by Sverre Walter Rostoft, the current Norwegian minister for industry.