Stegenwald joint venture power plant

The Stegenwald joint venture power plant is a project of VERBUND and Salzburg AG for more electricity from the Salzach.

The Salzach has been reliably supplying electricity from hydropower for decades. With the Stegenwald joint venture power plant, around 20,000 more households can be supplied with electricity from clean, domestic hydropower. The construction is not creating a classic reservoir in the area of Stegenwald. Instead, the Salzach will be retained as a flowing body of water and additionally widened. Nowadays, a modern fish pass is a part of the ecological standard.

Groundbreaking for Stegenwald joint venture power plant on 30 June 2023

Board members and managing directors with spades in front of a plaque for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Stegenwald power plant
The project partners at the joint groundbreaking for Stegenwald on 30 June 2023

Contact

Rainer Tschopp

Spokesperson Region West

Send email

Stegenwald power station construction site, the lifting of the guide apparatus can be seen

Work on the power plant continues

Work in the Salzach River at the Stegenwald power plant construction site has been suspended since the end of August 2024. The reason for the partial halt to construction was the decision of the Administrative Court (VwGH), which annulled the decision of the Salzburg Provincial Administrative Court regarding the positive nature conservation licence. On 2 October 2024, the Salzburg Provincial Administrative Court lifted the suspensive effect associated with the appeal proceedings, allowing all nature conservation-related work on the construction site to continue again. The main focus here was on ecological and safety aspects.
Press release on the lifted suspensive effect
Stegenwald power station construction site, the lifting of the guide apparatus can be seen

Measures remain in place in the Salzach

End of August 2024, the Administrative Court of Justice (VwGH) overturned the decision of the Salzburg Provincial Administrative Court based on the extraordinary appeal by the Provincial Environmental Ombudsman's Office (LUA) regarding the nature conservation permit due to formal reasons in the justification and not because of substantive failures on the part of the project applicants. The project operators VERBUND and Salzburg AG have spent the last few days carefully examining the impact of this decision on the Stegenwald power plant construction site.
Press release measures remain in place
Half-time celebration at the Stegenwald power plant with the following persons: Herwig Berkenhoff (Deputy Project Manager) Karl Heinz Gruber (Managing Director of VERBUND Wasserkraft) Herwig Struber (CEO of Salzburg AG) Martin Dietrich (Mayor of Golling) Hannes Badura (Project Manager) Hubert Stock (Mayor of Werfen) Michael Baminger (CEO of Salzburg AG)

Half-time celebration at the Stegenwald power plant

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Salzach power plant in Stegenwald took place at the end of June 2023. It is an important building block in the energy transition and in future will generate as much clean electricity as 20,000 households consume on average per year. Yesterday, construction progress was celebrated with a small half-time party. Project operators VERBUND and Salzburg AG invited the mayors of the neighbouring communities and local residents to celebrate the smooth implementation of the project.
Press release for the Half-time celebration
Handover of the new red pump trailer to the Werfen fire brigade.

New mobile pump trailer for the Werfen Volunteer Fire Brigade

The Werfen Volunteer Fire Brigade is primarily responsible for the Stegenwald power plant, which falls within its deployment area. In order to reach the construction site quickly and safely in winter too, when there’s a risk of avalanches, the fire brigade was equipped with a mobile pump trailer by the project operators VERBUND and Salzburg AG. As a token of appreciation, there was also a cheque for EUR 3,000 on top.
Press release new mobile pump trailer
Aerial view of the power plant's construction site next to the Salzach river

Groundbreaking for Stegenwald

With a joint groundbreaking for the Stegenwald joint venture project, the project partners VERBUND, Salzburg AG and representatives of the province of Salzburg celebrated the start of construction. Salzburg's newest power plant on the Salzach can cover the annual electricity demand of 20,000 households with a capacity of 14.3 megawatts and an annual output of 72.8 gigawatt hours.
Press release on the groundbreaking at Stegenwald
Please accept marketing-cookies for this website displaying Google Map.

Image from the Location

Owner VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH, Salzburg AG
Operator VERBUND Hydro Power GmbH
Commissioning 2025
Type Project, Run-of-river power plant
Country Austria
Region Salzburg
Waters Salzach
Output 14.3 MW
Annual output 73,800 MWh
Turbine Kaplan
Connectivity Fish bypass under construction