Mill Womelsdorf

The Womelsdorf mill is a watermill in Womelsdorf , a district of the municipality of Erndtebrück in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ). It is located on the Eder and is mainly used today to generate electricity.

history

The building is from the 17th century. The first use of hydropower is documented in 1691. Flour was ground until the 1990s. In 2011 a discussion broke out in local politics as to whether the building should be listed as a historical monument . This was unanimously rejected because it would conflict with the further purpose. At the end of 2013 the mill was bought by Johannes Wickel and Bernd Föllmer.

The old mill technology is still completely intact, but needs an overhaul. The income from hydropower could finance this. One or two vacation homes are planned.

Use of hydropower

The old, inefficient generator was built in 1930. It had an output of 10 kilowatts and ran until 2014, after which it was replaced by a new Francis turbine with an output of 34 kilowatts. The turbine was installed in March 2016. Due to damage to the Obergraben, a maximum of 28 kilowatts can be generated. The repair of the upper ditch is planned.

The plant should have a standard work capacity of 150,000 kilowatt hours. Mathematically, this would cover the entire needs of the place. The system avoids almost 100 tons of CO2 emissions . The turbine should have a service life of 80 years. The project has a budget of 200,000 euros. For this project, Wickel and Stremmel founded Hydrostrom Wittgenstein GmbH .

The fish are protected by a guide current and horizontal rakes with 15 mm rod spacing. The fish descent works via a calming basin in the upper trench. A fish ladder is planned for the fish pass in the Eder .

In April 2017, the conflict between the operator and the licensing authority over the amount of water became known. It is about the height of the water-feeding mill ditch, which is lower than originally due to war damage. A danger from the increase is a possible drying out of the river. A lawsuit has been filed against an administrative order.

Web links

• Alexander Blecher: Visit to the mill: clean use of hydropower in Wittgenstein. energiegenossenschaft-wittgenstein.de, October 23, 2016, accessed on June 12, 2018 . 
• The heart of the hydropower plant is built in. derWesten.de, March 15, 2016, accessed on October 3, 2016 . 
• Eberhard Demtröder: The dream: vacation in a real mill ambience. derwesten.de, June 6, 2014, accessed December 19, 2015 . 
• Eberhard Demtröder: Electricity from the Womelsdorf mill will soon be available again. derwesten.de, December 3, 2015, accessed December 19, 2015 . 

literature

• Live the Paris Agreement locally . In: Siegener Zeitung. Wittgenstein edition . December 15, 2015, p. 7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Monument protection works like expropriation. derWesten.de, September 8, 2011, accessed on October 23, 2016 . 
2. ↑ Soon ahead with full hydropower. siegener-zeitung.de, December 2, 2015, accessed on October 23, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Legal action against the administrative order. Hydropower threatens to become inefficient. siegener-zeitung.de, April 19, 2017, accessed April 25, 2017 . 

Coordinates: 51 ° 0 ′ 33.8 "  N , 8 ° 15 ′ 33.3"  E