Husnes is the largest urban area in Kvinnherad

Kvinnherad

Kvinnherad is a municipality in the county of Hordaland, Norway. The parish of Kvindherred was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . Fjelberg, most of Varaldsøy and parts of Skånevik merged with Kvinnherad on 1 January 1965.The municipality is the 5th in size in Hordaland...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, with c. 2500 inhabitants as of 2010, and about 8000 in the local region. The village is centered around Sør-Norge Aluminium (SØRAL

SØRAL

Sør-Norge Aluminium AS or SØRAL is one of the seven aluminium producers in Norway.SØRAL 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...

), and has become the center of commerce and education in Kvinnherad.

Industry and commerce

Two of the largest companies in Kvinnherad, HMR Group and SØRAL both have their headquarters on Husnes. Local newspaper Kvinnheringen

Kvinnheringen

Kvinnheringen is the local newspaper for the county of Kvinnherad in Western Norway. It was founded and first released in 1973, and today has a circulation of approx. 5000. It is released on a tri-weekly basis, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. In addition to its hard copy circulation, the...

 also has their headquarters here. The downtown area of Husnes has three shopping malls, housing more than fifty different businesses and stores. In 2008, a new shopping center was constructed, partially merging into the one of the old centers Torghuset. At the same time, the Nordic home electronics company Elkjøp

Elkjøp

Elkjøp is the largest electrical retailer in the Nordic countries, with over 264 stores across six countries and 6000 employees. It is owned by Dixons Retail....

 constructed a new warehouse next to the shopping centres. It is the biggest shopping district between the cities of Bergen

Bergen

Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....

 and Haugesund

Haugesund

is a town and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.-Location:Haugesund was separated from Torvastad as a town and municipality of its own in 1855. The rural municipality of Skåre was merged with Haugesund on January 1, 1958. Haugesund is a small municipality, only 73 km²...

 on the Norwegian west coast.

School

Husnes is the school center in Kvinnherad, with one elementary school, one junior high school and one high school, as well as two additional elementary schools in the immediate regions. The high school, Kvinnherad Vidaregåande Skule, houses around 400 students each year.

Notable people

• Norwegian Pop Idol
  Pop Idol
  Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...
  
   judge, journalist and TV and radio personality Asbjørn Slettemark is a native of Husnes.