Hydropower on the up – Kerstin Schreyer visits the Mühltal power plant – district of Munich

Kerstin Schreyer narrowly missed the last raft for this Tuesday, which tumbled down the raft slide past the Mühltal power plant at 40 km/h at midday. It would certainly have been fun for her, standing on the stone footbridge at the Gasthaus Zur Mühle, to see the screaming crew hissing past below her, but she appeared here in the Mühltal in her capacity as energy policy spokeswoman for the CSU parliamentary group in the state parliament, and so on In any case, she is less interested in other people’s leisure activities than in the time-honored power plant and the regenerative energy it generates.

The former Bavarian minister, most recently for housing, construction and transport, did not choose the date in the Isar valley by chance, as the Bundestag also had space in its “Easter package” last week to continue funding small hydroelectric power plants with a lower capacity than 500 kilowatts – under pressure from the CSU, as Schreyer can emphasize several times. The Mühltal power plant, with a capacity of 11.2 megawatts, is well above this limit, as are the power plants in Höllriegelskreuth (3.1 megawatts) and Pullach (4.1 megawatts). Thus, the Easter package is actually irrelevant in terms of funding for these three Isar power plants.

Kerstin Schreyer recently campaigned for hydroelectric power with Graefelfing’s mayor Peter Köstler at the Kraemermühle.

(Photo: Doll/Municipality of Gräfelfing)

In principle, however, the decision is of course to be welcomed, said Theodoros Reumüssel, press spokesman for hydropower at Uniper Kraftwerke GmbH, which operates more than a hundred run-of-river, storage and pumped-storage power plants on the Rhine, Danube, Lech and Isar, in which an amount of electricity is generated covering the annual needs of 1.6 million households. The run-of-river power plant in Mühltal generates energy for 17,000 households. It is an important point that, in addition to wind and sun, hydropower is now finally being accorded outstanding public interest by law, explains Reumessel.

“We have to tap energy where we can,” says Kerstin Schreyer, taking a stand for hydropower, which is more reliable than wind and sun, and repeating the Christian Socialists’ criticism of the federal government’s refusal to temporarily put nuclear reactors back into operation. “That’s when you realize that Bavaria isn’t sitting at the cabinet table. Prevent one thing, stop the other – how is that supposed to work?” asks the CSU woman rhetorically, who has now arrived in the control room of the power plant, which was completed in 1924 . Views are directed up to the ceiling of the listed building, where the sea god Poseidon, Zeus, who throws lightning, Aiolos, the lord of the winds, and the sun god Helios are grouped around a compass rose in a symbolic ceiling painting . As is well known, Aiolos has no stone on the board of the CSU, and Kerstin Schreyer does not stop complaining about wind power in the control room either. The Unterhaching native points out that 1,000 wind turbines would have to be built just to meet the energy needs of Wacker Chemie, and 4,600 for Munich Airport.

Renewable energies: Proponents of hydropower as an energy source: (from left) Theodoros Reumessel, Lars Pappert (both from Uniper) and Kerstin Schreyer (CSU).

Proponents of hydropower as an energy source: (from left) Theodoros Reumessel, Lars Pappert (both from Uniper) and Kerstin Schreyer (CSU).

(Photo: private)

Schreyer knows that hydroelectric power plants are controversial, partly because they usually require structural interventions in the natural course of water – with effects on fish, other animals and plants. In her opinion, the fish in the Isar and in the canal do not have to fear any disadvantages from the weir and power plant thanks to a fish ladder. “Here we pick up the fish and accompany them,” says the energy policy spokeswoman for the CSU. Press spokesman Reumessel agrees with a small smear. A very small percentage of the fish do not survive the ascent, which is a negligible size in relation to the population.

Various conditions also played a role in the construction and operation of hydroelectric power plants. “Teams run through the botany and collect sand lizards,” says Reumüssel. “And they are counted seven times,” she knows from her time as minister, Schreyer continues. She also knows that the raft slide at the Mühltal power plant is the longest in Europe at 306 metres. She has never been on a raft, “but I have to do that,” she says.

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