Salzgitter AG and TU Braunschweig build research hydropower plant
25.01.2016 | Salzgitter AG
Salzgitter AG and TU Braunschweig build research hydropower plant
Realization of an extensive multi-year research program in Bannetze/Hornbostel
In cooperation with the Technical University of Braunschweig, Salzgitter AG is to commence work on building a research hydropower plant on the Aller Dam in Bannetze-Hornbostel in the district of Celle, with completion scheduled for 2017.
Investment in the power plant construction and accompanying research amounts to approximately € 11 million. The research project is being funded by the German government and the Federal State of Saxony.
The project is aimed at proving the technical feasibility of a hydropower technology that is unique in the world in its capability of harnessing hydropower potential formerly not technically and economically usable in the case of large heads and high flow rates. During the project, special consideration will be given to the ecological conditions existing in the Hornbostel pastureland natural reserve, as well as to permitting the passage of fish.
The 500 kW high-performance steel water wheel employed in the power plant has an intake capacity of 60 m³/s, which is ten times that of conventional waterwheels. A wide array of the structural and mechanical engineering components are to be used partly from products both new and further developed in the Salzgitter AG portfolio. These products are to be sourced from today’s product range that includes components, plate, tubes and pipes, as well as rolled sections.
TU Braunschweig obtained planning approval for the construction and operation of the plant back in 2010, as well as the relevant authorization for water management from Lüneburg-based Lower Saxony Water Management, Coastal Defense and Nature Conservation Agency. Activities will be focused on investigations conducted as part of short-, medium-and long-term research on technical (production), mechanical (flow) and ecological issues.
If the desired technical realization of university research is successfully upscaled for industrial use, introducing a CO2-free key technology suitable for meeting base load requirements and capable of stabilizing the grid in the renewable energies domain will be possible in the long term in Germany.
The anticipated annual production of electricity generated by the research hydropower plant amounts to 2,500,000 kWh, sufficient to supply 1,000 three-person households in the environs with green electricity and equivalent to CO2 savings of 2,500 t CO2 a year compared with coal-fired power.
Ground-breaking ceremony during the opening of the construction site. From left: Thomas Rumpf, head of WSA Verden (Waterways and Shipping Office), Professor Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann, Chief Executive Officer of Salzgitter AG, Dirk Oelmann, Mayor of the Winsen municipality, Professor Jürgen Hesselbach, President of TU Braunschweig, Wolfgang Klußmann, Mayor of the Wietze municipality, Dr. Gabriele Heinen-Kljajić, Minister for Science and Culture in Lower Saxony, Uwe Beckmeyer, Parliamentary Secretary of State, Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy