Schattenhalb power plant
Map with all coordinates: | Schattenhalb power plant | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||
| location | |||
|
|||
| Coordinates | 657052 / 174 519 | ||
| country | Switzerland | ||
| Waters | Reichenbach | ||
| Data | |||
| Type | Run-of-river power plant | ||
| Primary energy | Hydropower | ||
| power | 12 MW | ||
| owner | BKW Energie AG | ||
| Project start | 1896 | ||
| Start of operations | 1909 | ||
| Website | BKW | ||
The Schattenhalb power plant is a run-of-river power plant in the municipality of Schattenhalb in the canton of Bern . It belongs to BKW Energie AG .
history
Around the middle of the 19th century, the water from the lower Reichenbach Falls was used by the Reichenbach saw to operate its water wheel. The Schattenhalb power plant has been using the water of the Reichenbach , a tributary of the Aare , with its 48 square kilometer catchment area for over 100 years . The Schattenhalb 1 power plant is operated on the slope of the Reichenbach Falls ⊙ . For the Schattenhalb 3 power plant, the Reichenbach water is collected in the Zwirgi reservoir ( 1000 m above sea level ) ⊙ above the Reichenbach Falls.
Shadow half 1
In 1899 the electrically operated Reichenbachfall cable car was opened and electrical lighting was installed for the Reichenbachfall. The provisional small power station built by engineer Elias Flotron in 1898 supplied the electricity for the railway and a “lighting power station” for his Reichenbach and Des Alpes hotels . The railway founders Elias Flotron and Franz Josef Bucher began planning a power plant in 1896. They were able to build the Reichenbach power station with the construction of the Schattenhalb headquarters in the valley floor (Schattenhalb 1) ⊙ from 1900, received a license from the Canton of Bern in 1907 and began producing electricity in 1909.
The Schattenhalb 1 run-of-river power plant was taken out of operation prematurely in October 2014 (concession until 2016). The plant was completely renovated by EWR Energie AG, a subsidiary of BKW, for 13 million francs over a two-year construction period and opened in 2017. Electricity production could be increased by 30 percent. The 216 meter high gradient from the water intake below the Reichenbach Falls ( 816 m above sea level ) to the headquarters in the valley floor of Willigen ( 600 m above sea level ) is used. The water flows through a 570 meter long pressure pipe next to the railroad track to the headquarters. There, a maximum of 1,300 liters of water per second is turbine with a four-nozzle Pelton turbine.
With an installed capacity of 2.3 megawatts annually, around 6.7 gigawatt hours of electricity can be produced and 1500 households can be supplied. Shadow half 1 is only in operation in the summer half of the year and supports shadow half 3, which has to allow enough residual water to flow over the Reichenbach Falls for tourism. The concession was granted for 80 years.
Shadow half 2
Elektrowerke Reichenbach AG, which had become the owner of the Reichenbachfall Bahn in 1922, built the Schattenhalb 2 ⊙ power plant center 70 meters below the top station of the Reichenbachfall Bahn in 1926 . The two turbines were installed in 1926 and 1940 and in 2010 they were in pristine condition and ran perfectly.
In 2010, Schattenhalb 2 was switched off by BKW and should be canceled. However, the demolition could be stopped and in 2016 the whole work was transferred to the newly established foundation “Kraft & Wasser Schattenhalb”. The foundation wants to preserve the plant with the historic turbines as a cultural monument and to provide an improved access route for the region's tourist offerings, for which donors were sought in 2019.
Shadow half 3
In 2006, EWR Energie AG, a subsidiary of the BKW Group since 2000, received an 80-year license for the planned Schattenhalb 3 power plant. In 2008, the construction of the 713 meter long pressure pipe tunnel and 280 meter long pressure pipe shaft (slope 140 percent) from the Zwirgib basin to the central Badmatten ⊙ in the valley floor began.
In 2010, Schattenhalb 3 was inaugurated. The water contained in the Zwirgi reservoir has a gradient of 400 meters and flows through a pressure pipe that is around 1000 meters long. The generator, driven by a vertical-axis, six-nozzle Pelton turbine, has an output of 9.7 megawatts. The turbine swallows 2.8 cubic meters of water at 750 revolutions per minute.
Annual electricity production could be increased from 34 GWh to 48.6 GWh. This means that the electricity needs of 14,000 households can be covered. Shadow half 1 and 3 complement each other in the summer half year. Shadow half 1 only takes hold of the water below the Reichenbach Falls and is not affected by the prescribed residual water quantity for the Reichenfachball.
Shadow half 4
Schattenhalb 4 has been in the planning and licensing phase since 2007. The water should be about 80 meters above the Junghans Bridge at 1291 m above sea level by means of a small weir in the Reichenbach at the Gschwandtenmad exit . M. be taken. A two and a half kilometer long shaft is to be blasted into the rock and the water below the Seilialp is to be sent via pressure pipeline to a new central Oberzwirgi (at the existing barrage in the Zwirgi, above the Reichenbach Falls).
In order to prevent the Schattenhalb 4 project, more than 400 objections were submitted in 2010 and the «Schattenhalb4» association was founded to fight against “the destruction of the last wild mountain stream in the Haslital”.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cable car to Reichenbachfall, Meiringen
- ↑ The Shadow Halber
- ↑ Jungfrau newspaper of September 6, 2017: The power of water
- ^ The federal government of September 8, 2017: The new Schattenhalb 1 hydropower plant in Oberhasli inaugurated
- ↑ BKW portal of September 8, 2017: Factsheet hydroelectric power plant Schattenhalb 1
- ↑ Jungfrau newspaper from August 30, 2010: A last look at a historical power plant
- ↑ Jungfrauzeitung from July 20, 2017: A monument of a special kind
- ↑ Berner Heimatschutz: The Kraft & Wasser Foundation
- ↑ Guido Lauper: Electricity as it was back then with Schattenhalb 2 . In: Berner Zeitung . January 26, 2019 ( bernerzeitung.ch [accessed January 25, 2020]).
- ↑ Berner Zeitung of November 17, 2010: Schattenhalb 3 as the youngest hydropower plant on the grid
- ↑ Jungfrau newspaper from February 19, 2018: Club continues to fight against Schattenhalb 4
- ^ Website of the association Schattenhalb4