Massive pumped-hydro storage facility comes online in Switzerland

Share

Swiss renewable energy producer Alpiq announced last week that a 900 MW pumped-hydro storage facility built in Finhaut, in the canton of Valais, Switzerland, has started commercial operations.

The hydropower station is owned by Alpiq itself (39%), Swiss Federal Railways (36%), Industrielle Werke Basel (15%), and Forces Motrices Valaisannes (10%). Its construction started in 2008 and it uses two different water reservoirs at the Émosson Dam, which was completed in 1974.

Located in a cave 600 m underground between the Emosson and Vieux Emosson reservoirs, the Nant de Drance power plant relies on six pump turbines, each with a power capacity of 150 MW. It uses the Emosson and Vieux Emosson reservoirs to operate. The water stored in the upper reservoir of Vieux-Emosson, which has a storage capacity of 227,000,000 m3, or 20 million kWh, falls into the underground power station via two vertical shafts that are 425 m high.

The project was built at a cost of approximately CHF 2 billion ($2.09 billion) and saw the participation of 60 enterprises. It required the excavation of 400,000 m3 of rock and the drilling of 17 km of galleries.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Mercedes-Benz testing new solar paint
02 December 2024 Mercedes-Benz said it is now evaluating a 20%-efficient, non-silicon photovoltaic coating that is significantly cheaper than conventional solar module...