KIRCHDORFER BAUT HÖCHSTE FISCHTREPPE IN EUROPA

MIT 90 MEGAWATT IST DAS VERBUND-KRAFTWERK „ANNABRÜCKE“ DAS LEISTUNGSSTÄRKSTE DRAUKRAFTWERK IN KÄRNTEN. BIS FRÜHJAHR 2020 WIRD NUN AUCH DIE ERFORDERLICHE FISCHAUFSTIEGSHILFE NACHGERÜSTET: MIT EINER HÖHENDIFFERENZ VON INSGESAMT 26 METERN LIEFERT DIE KIRCHDORFER GRUPPE MIT DEM „ENATURE® FISHPASS-SYSTEM“ DEN HÖCHSTEN FISCHAUFSTIEG IN GANZ EUROPA.
Enature Fishpass Kirchdorfer

The Drau, which has a gradient like a mountain stream along its 220 kilometres through Carinthia, is a productive river in terms of hydropower: the 10 Drau power plants cover almost 2/3 of Carinthia’s total electricity demand. The demands on the fish ladders are correspondingly high. At the Annabrücke power plant, fish will soon – with the help of Kirchdorf Concrete Solutions – “effortlessly” and flow-technically pass through 172 pools and in doing so will cover a height difference of 26 metres on the 750-metre-long artificial stretch – a new Europe-wide record for such installations.

Sabine Käfer, the responsible project manager at VERBUND AG, also confirms that the fish really do migrate “effortlessly” through the enature® fishpass system from Kirchdorf-based Concrete Solutions: “Using a computer-assisted monitoring system, we were able to register 140,000 fish migrations from 26 different species at the Schwabeck power plant, ranging from very small fish with weak swims to a catfish measuring 1.36 metres in length.”

The fact that after Lavamünd, Edling, Schwabeck and Rosegg, another of the Drau power plants is being equipped with enature® Fishpass also has to do with economic advantages: The hydraulically optimised sequence of staggered slots reduces the water flow rate by up to 40 % compared to conventional “vertical slot” installations. This means that a larger share of the water energy can be used for power generation.

Record installations at power plants

When the first EU directives for the preservation of the natural flowing water continuum were adopted in the early 2000s, it was clear to the engineers at Kirchdorfer Concrete Solutions that only a cleverly designed prefabricated system based on the Lego principle could meet these requirements. Since the presentation of the system, which was developed in cooperation with the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna, around 50 installations have already been delivered throughout Austria. The need for retrofitting is still high – of the approximately 100 hydropower plants, about half are equipped with fish ladders. A particularly large number of installations can be seen at the power plants along the Drava in Carinthia, where one of the last gaps in terms of fish ladders is now being closed with the new project at the Annabrücke power plant.

Enature Fishpass Kirchdorfer Schwabeck

The record holder since 2015: Enature® Fishpass at the Schwabeck power plant on the Drau. From 2020, an even larger installation at the Annabrücke power plant will overcome 26 metres in height – the highest difference in all of Europe.

Fishpass

Installation of the precast elements

Enature Fishpass Logo

You can find high-resolution image material under the following link:
Kirchdorfer baut höchste Fischtreppe in Europa

Photo material may be reproduced free of charge if named: © Kirchdorfer Concrete Solutions

Press contact
We appreciate your editorial interest and will be pleased to answer your questions:

Dipl.-Ing. (BA) Matthias Pfützner, MBA Press Spokesman of the Kirchdorfer Group 4560 Kirchdorf, Hofmannstraße 4
T: +43 5 7715 200 420
M: +43 664 324 28 40
E: matthias.pfuetzner@kirchdorfer.at

 

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