News

March 31, 2011 - Since September 2010, a pair of small river turbines from KSB Aktiengesellschaft, installed in the Rhine River near the German town of St. Goar, have been generating electricity for the local grid. These prototype run of river turbines require no damns or diversions of water and mark KSB’s intent to develop new power generation technology for commercial use.

“We believe in a type of power supply that aims at economic effectiveness, reliability of supply and ecological compatibility all at once,” said Prof. Dr. Dieter-Heinz Hellmann, member of the KSB AG management board.

With the development of the river turbine, he added, KSB can offer a new means of generating power within the scope of “small hydropower” that is not only clean but also capable of providing base load power.

The project is being supported by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Consumer Protection for the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Minister Margit Conrad travelled to Frankenthal specially to attend the commissioning ceremony where she gave the start-up signal for the in-feed of electricity. This pilot installation is testing the efficiency of turbines designed to generate power without affecting climatic conditions or the environment. She said the two turbines were the latest of KSB AG’s efforts to supply the market with innovative products.

“The river turbine pilot installation is a good example of how, through the use of cutting-edge technology, a body of naturally running water can be utilised in a highly efficient manner without harming the fish population or getting in the way of passing ships.” In Germany, hydropower is the second most important form of renewable energy, surpassed only by wind power.

KSB believes the hydropower of total output of renewables has room to expand. In Germany alone, one could potentially generate hydropower in the range of 6.8 TWh per year – without major impacts to the natural landscape. The German Federal Government supports power stations with a total output of less than 500 kW by paying a feed-in tariff of 12.67 eurocents per kWh.

KSB also believes there is a market for “small hydropower” internationally, where the problem of supplying rural areas with electricity calls for creative solutions.