Lünerseewerk

The Lünerseewerk is a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in the Montafon valley, standing above Tschagguns in Latschau. Built between 1954 and 1958, it draws water from the Lünersee lake 974 metres higher through tunnels and pressure pipes. At completion it became the world’s most powerful plant of its kind, even with only five of six planned turbine sets installed. The plant’s five vertical-axis machine groups can switch between pumping and generating in minutes, delivering up to 229 megawatts. Each day the sets alternate about forty times between modes, handling flows of up to 32 cubic metres per second. A small run-of-river plant still operates in Latschau I, while the main hall houses massive cranes and a visitor exhibition called the Schauraum. Visitors see the long, low machine hall and can peer through panoramic windows at the turbines below. Inside the Schauraum, displays explain how the plant works and the geology of the Rätikon range. Outside, the setting combines high alpine scenery with industrial scale, where water travels kilometres through rock before reaching the turbines.