Pumped storage power plant near Schweich / Mosel Integrated landscape development with a technical infrastructure project

Principle of a pumped storage power plant

SWT is planning to construct a pumped storage power plant (PSPP) with a capacity of approx. 300 MW. The prerequisite for such an energy storage facility is a sufficiently large upper and lower basin (each with a capacity of approx. 6 million m³) with an appropriate water supply for the initial filling and the greatest possible difference in height between the basins in order to achieve maximum energy efficiency.

The machines required for pumping the water or for generating electricity will be housed in an underground cavern below the upper basin. Adits and shafts running underground will provide a connection first from the upper basin to the cavern and from there to the lower basin. These galleries and shafts serve to exchange water between the basins. The only visible features in the landscape are vegetated earthen embankments / dams and operating buildings.

Prerequisites for successful implementation

Prerequisites for (hopefully) successful implementation

2.1 Creating added value for the region - preserving and developing the cultural landscape
A project of this magnitude does not meet with approval per se. One opportunity to improve acceptance is to simultaneously help solve problems that exist locally with a large-scale project. Thus, such a project is not understood as a primarily technical project, but as a project of integrated regional development.


2.2 Involve those affected at an early stage
The realization of this project in the targeted timeframe requires timely planning that is coordinated from the beginning with all project stakeholders. For this reason, a very aggressive information policy has been pursued since the initial considerations for the project. Regular citizens' meetings and site inspections serve to transport information about the developing planning and give the opportunity to deal with emerging concerns of citizens in good time. As a result, the mood towards the project is positive. In addition, in the sense of a weak-point analysis, problems that arose during the planning process were discussed directly with the specialist authorities, local authorities and users concerned, and planning solutions were found. The nature conservation associations and specialist authorities are regularly involved throughout the project.
The regional planning procedure was only opened with a plan concept that had been clarified in advance by the informal discussions and that covered all aspects, with the hope that this would enable the procedure to be passed with few objections.
The same procedure will also be applied to the planning approval procedure, for which the preparatory work is currently underway.

2.3 Consider regional economic aspects
The financing of the project, a total of about € 500 million, is to come mainly from the region ("From the region, for the region"). To this end, new approaches are also being taken. Property owners in the project area have the opportunity, for example, to contribute the value of their real estate as a financial contribution to the project. The project executing agency, Stadtwerke Trier, has also had good experience with widely distributed share certificates for renewable energy projects, which are also to be used here. In this way, the economic added value remains in the region and improves acceptance.

Compensation concept - with and for the region

The planning of the pumped storage power plant will result in the impairment or loss of landscape elements (including rough pastures, streams, wetlands). According to nature conservation and water law, compensation measures must be designated for these interventions. At the same time, these measures are intended to promote landscape development supported by local authorities and land users and to remedy problems.

This is to be explained using two examples:
1. The Moselle valley is one of the most important tourist regions in Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to the river itself, the vineyards are particularly characteristic, which extend enclosed on both sides of the valley, partly in steep slopes to the forested upper edge of the slope. One of the biggest regional problems is the decline of viticulture in the WeinKulturLandschaft Mosel. This leads to a patchwork of farmland and, in some cases, large areas of fallow land, which make it difficult to cultivate the remaining areas and considerably reduce the value of the landscape for tourism and recreation.
The project was able to initiate and finance a discussion of the guiding principles in the surrounding communities, in which it was clarified, together with winegrowers and local authorities, which areas would still be used for viticulture in the future and where reforestation or measures to keep the area open should be carried out. At the same time, it was communicated that the compensation concept under nature conservation and forestry law for the project would adhere to this orientation framework and fit compensation measures, as far as this is technically justifiable, into the area setting of this discussion process. This process was completed in the summer of 2012. Currently, in cooperation with nature conservation authorities and environmental associations, the selection of areas is taking place that will ultimately be submitted to the approval process. The selection of the areas will in turn be communicated to the municipalities.
In addition to providing land for the project, a reallocation process, which is currently underway in parallel with the preparation of the approval documents, is also being used to provide contiguous compensation areas under nature conservation law, on which grazing projects are intended to ensure that the landscape remains open as desired. As an intended by-product, the wine-growing areas will be merged into coherent, sustainable wine-growing areas. With the instrument of the nature protection-legal impact regulation thus at the same time the compensation of agrarian-structural disadvantages is obtained.

2. In the course of the dam regulation of the Mosel for the navigation half a century ago a side arm was put on with Mehring, which possesses only upstream a connection to the river. As a result, a lot of flotsam with a high proportion of rubbish collects here during floods, which significantly reduces the ecological and aesthetic qualities. Part of the necessary compensatory measures for the development of a wetland will be shifted to this area in order to make the channel passable and to develop it as an intermittently flowing tributary.

back to overview

1. Principle of a pumped storage power plant
2. Prerequisites for successful implementation
3. Compensation concept - with and for the region