Welding equipment goes up high for hydropower

摘要

Specialist welding equipment supplied by Fronius has played a key role in the construction of a new hydropower plant deep in the Austrian Alps. Currently under construction at 2,500m above sea level in the southern Austrian state of Carinthia, much of the work on the 430MW pumped storage power plant is taking place deep within a mountain, where over 5km of steel piping have been installed in order to make use of an existing lake. At the heart of this is an 800m-long pressure shaft lined with 3,963 tonnes of thermomechanical steel with a strength class of 690N/mm~2. This is the first time this particular metal has been used in Europe. Unlike quenched and tempered steel, this steel has the advantage that it is cheaper to manufacture and can be welded more easily.