Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station, Industrial heritage site in Kochel, Germany.
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station is a water-powered facility in Upper Bavaria that converts elevation differences between two lakes into electricity. The system moves water through large pipes connecting the higher Walchensee to the lower Kochelsee, spinning turbines to generate current.
Construction took place from 1918 to 1924 as part of an early attempt to transmit electricity across long distances using overhead power lines. Engineer Oskar von Miller designed this facility to demonstrate how hydropower could serve entire regions efficiently.
The plant's name comes from the Walchensee, the upper reservoir at 801 m; the Kochelsee below lies at 600 m. The machine hall holds four Pelton turbines with single-phase generators feeding the railway at 16 2/3 Hz and four Francis turbines with three-phase generators for the public grid. In the courtyard stands a dismantled 30-ton Pelton wheel set, replaced after blade improvements raised efficiency.
The machine hall lies south of the Kochelsee, about 14 km from the village of Walchensee. The intake at Urfeld is largely hidden behind a road bridge and a rake in the rock, while the surge tank stands high above the plant at the end of a 1,200 m pressure tunnel. In the courtyard between machine hall and transformer house stands a dismantled 30-ton Pelton wheel set with two impellers.
During World War II, a wind tunnel for rocket testing was relocated to this site after bomb damage elsewhere forced the relocation. This hidden research facility demonstrates how the power station became part of wartime industrial operations.
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