Furkelbach power plant, Italy

In the ski region of South Tyrol, acceptable solutions had to be found for two sites, as water from the Furkelbach is used by cablecar operator Olanger Seilbahnen AG for snow-making systems. An agreement was reached thanks to a 50 l/s pump back. The operating company is 80% from the town of Olang and 20% private. Thanks to the combination of Pelton turbines and an AEM synchronous generator, it is possible to feed over 2 GWh into the local network for this purpose each year. The payback period for the site is around 8 to 10 years.