Schönenberg power plant

Schönenberg power plant
	Factory canal of the former silk weaving mill
	location
Coordinates	733 185 / 264 671 coordinates: 47 ° 31 '9 " N , 9 ° 12' 25" O ; CH1903: seven hundred and thirty-three thousand one hundred and eighty-five / two hundred and sixty-four thousand six hundred seventy-one
country	Switzerland Thurgau;
place	Schönenberg on the Thur
Waters	Thur
Kilometers of water	km 0
	f1
	power plant
owner	Thurkraftwerk AG
operator	Thurkraftwerk AG
construction time	18 months
Start of operation	2010
	technology
Bottleneck performance	1.7 megawatts
Average ; height of fall	4.5 m
Expansion flow	50 m³ / s
Turbines	2 Kaplan turbines
Generators	2
	Others
Website	https://www.thurkraftwerk.ch

The Schönenberg hydropower plant is located in the canton of Thurgau , in the area of the municipality of Kradolf-Schönenberg an der Thur . It consists of the historical power center of the former silk weaving mill and the Thurfeld military power station of Thurkraft AG . The latter produces around 7.1 GWh annually for 2000 households.

Power center silk weaving mill Schönenberg

Heinrich Brunner founded a silk weaving mill in Schönenberg in 1863 (from 1900 Siber & Wehrli ) with 140 looms on which “ Satin légère” was produced in 27 buildings . For the construction of the power generation plant, Salomon Hegner from Eppishausen Castle received seven Jucharten land with the right to use water for a 3.6 meter gradient from the former community of Schönenberg an der Thur in 1862 .

Because of the low incline in the Thur Valley, long inlet channels to the power plants had to be built in order to use at least three to seven meters of incline. Initially, Francis turbines were installed with a vertical impeller and a horizontally positioned shaft. The power was taken from the shaft by belt drives and fed into operation without a gearbox. With the electrification and the introduction of generators, turbines with vertical axes were built, with the turbine wheel standing in the water below and the generator above it in the machine house.

The installed turbine with an output of 20 hp started operation in 1863. The turbine had a vertical drive axis. With a steel-wood angular gear, the water power was transmitted directly to the looms with transmission belts. In 1916 it was electrified with generators. In the following years, with the factory expansion, the output was gradually increased. In 1909 two Francis twin turbines and in 1916 a new 90 hp, all from Escher Wyss, were installed. In 1978 the silk weaving mill was stopped. The old canal power plant continued to operate until 1998.

The Kraftzentrale Schönenberg association was founded in 2002 to maintain the Kraftzentrale. Since 2004 the former power center of the silk weaving mill with its three generations of turbines can be visited as an industrial monument.

Thurfeld river power plant

The Thurfeld river power plant of Thurkraftwerk AG in Schönenberg was integrated into the existing weir system of the former power plant of the Schönenberg silk weaving mill from 2010 to 2011. With the construction directly at the weir, the so-called diversion section could be eliminated.

The two parallel turbines on the same weir step are located in a mobile power house that can be raised in the event of high water, thus reducing other power losses. The turbines are not installed on the top or bottom, the water can flow under and over the turbines. With a flow capacity of 90 m³ / trough, 25 m³ of water per second flow through the turbine. The power is twice 850 kilowatts. The weir must only be used for regulation when the water volume is 180 m³ or more.

The machine house is next to the turbines. This means that the inlet area to the turbine can be kept clean with an arched rake and the debris can be washed away via the turbine. A passage up to 2.4 meters high can be made possible under the movable powerhouse to allow debris to pass through and prevent blocking in front of the computer system.

literature

Erwin Brüllmann (Ed.): Seidenstoffweberei Schönenberg 1863–1963 . Schönenberg 1963
Thomas Bunge et al .: Hydroelectric power plants as a renewable energy source: legal and ecological aspects . From the series of texts by the Federal Environment Agency, texts January 2001.