A two-year project to rebuild and optimize hydropower plants on the Görtschitz river in Austria has been completed, W&P Zement has announced, with the three plants now providing a quarter of the total electrical energy requirement for the Wietersdorf cement plant.
Around €12 million was invested by the Wietersdorfer Group in a project to completely rebuild two plants in the Wietersdorf power plant chain the optimize another. The plants together produce 18,000MWh of electricity per year, helping the group take an important step towards a CO 2-poor cement production.
All structural measures were carried out at the plants between September 2019 and October 2021. Work involved replacing the old power plant in Wietersdorf with a new one, merging the Hornburg and Eberstein plants and replacing them with a new building, and renewing the automation technology at Wieting power plant. In addition, special consideration was given to accompanying ecological measures at the power plant sites, including the construction of fish ladders in the area of the weir systems. Apprentices were also used at the sites to give them experience of practical challenges.