The license for the Tölzer Isar power plant will expire in 2024.
The hydropower plant generates 10 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.
Managing director Walter Huber hopes for an extension.
Bad Tölz - After 63 years of operation, the Isar power plant in Tölz is getting on in years.
At the end of 2024, the concession for the building, which once generated more than a third of the Tölzer electricity required, will expire in an environmentally friendly manner.
The 10 million kilowatt hours generated annually still cover 25 percent of the electricity generated by the municipal utility.
It was a “stroke of genius” by the Tölz city fathers in the 1950s when they dared to build the power plant, says managing director Walter Huber.
He naturally hopes that the concession will be extended.
Isar power station in Tölz: “Stroke of genius” by the Tölz city fathers
What is necessary for this?
The approval authority is the Tölzer District Office, which involves the specialist authorities at the Weilheim water management office and the Lower and Upper Nature Conservation Authority in the process.
Those responsible for public concerns such as fishermen and the Federation of Nature Conservation are also listened to.
At an application conference in the district office with the authorities, important prerequisites for an extension of the license were already discussed.
It's not about little things.
“That already costs us a few million,” says Huber.
Extension of the concession for the Isar power station will cost several million euros
For example, a fourth weir would have to be installed in order to guarantee flowability even in the most extreme floods, i.e. around 1000 cubic meters per second.
Even if a weir is defective.
This fourth weir is to be installed in place of the boat slide, i.e. on the left downstream.
There is enough space.
Another important point is the renewal of the fish pass.
It was inaugurated in 2005 and, contrary to popular belief, is actually in operation, says Huber.
However, the 45 water basins on the 200 meter long route are only accepted by small fish.
Larger ones like the huchen are to be guided closer to the weir to the fish ladder by a more oxygen-rich lure current.
"It will be a real concrete structure, but it will disappear in the bank area", explains the Stadtwerke boss.
Isar power station Bad Tölz: construction of a fourth weir would be essential
The third major technical chunk will be the renewal of the computer system.
At present, shrubbery, wood and other floating debris do justice from bottom to top.
In the future, a much finer rake will work horizontally.
Fish are carried into a channel and use a "fish descent aid", so to speak.
Specialist offices are currently working on all of this.
At the same time, data are collected for a landscape maintenance plan.
So, says Huber, the occurrence of fish and birds in the area of the power plant will be investigated for over a year.
It still takes some time before the public authorities are heard in the proceedings. The district chairman of the Federation of Nature Conservation, Friedl Krönauer, has therefore not yet dived deep enough into the matter. He generally affirms that the Isar power station generates environmentally friendly electricity. “We are not fundamentally against it”, he defends himself against the prejudice that the BN is just a no-sayer. But if money is made “with nature-friendly energy, it has to be so environmentally friendly that it also deserves the green label.” When it comes to aquatic ecology or bed load, the latest scientific findings must serve as the basis for the design.
(Christoph Schnitzer)
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