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international

and our incredible tour started. We were given
luminous gilets and a radio with an amplifier,
then we were shown the map and told where we
would be going and how.

The tour is overwhelmingly in German, but
I was lucky to have a native German-speaking
colleague with me. However, my extensive
preparation meant that even with my modest
Schwyz Deutsch, I could understand the
explanations and felt able to ask the many
questions I had. However, do not be put off if
you do not know much German: this is a tour to
be seen and felt as well as understood.

The gentleman from Axpo explained to us that
we would take a special funicular inside the
mountain, used by staff and guests. We were
directed to the mountain and went along a path
with reservoirs on both sides. We had been told
there were five levels: see the live camera going to the upper
• Tierfehd, 817 m.a.s.l. (m above sea level) Dam (Muttsee), and there were other
• Cavern area Limmernsee, 1'800 m.a.s.l. monitors, tables and charts, whose
• Ochsenstäfeli Limmernsee, 1'854 m.a.s.l. operation was also explained.
• Window gallery, 2'350 m.a.s.l. We then went 700 metres deeper
• Lake Muttsee, 2'446 m.a.s.l. into the mountain, through the huge
Therefore, the reservoirs we were seeing to either machine and transformer caverns and
side were on the 1st level, altitude 817 m. associated connecting tunnels. There
were information boards in each
And we started our way straight to the seemingly room and the gentleman from Axpo
inaccessible mountain. As we approached, we provided us with explanations; there
could see a sort of an entrance to the mountain, was even a cinema where we watched
then coming nearer we clearly saw the gates and a video about the power plant’s
as we approached we could see the railing. We construction. As well as all this, there
entered through a small door next to the gates. was a direct videocamera going right
There was a long corridor (already “into” the to the Muttsee Dam – at one point of
mountain) leading to another pair of doors - our tour we were told we were exactly
interior doors were all double doors, perhaps for under it. We moved deeper into the
hermetic or safety reasons – and finally we saw mountain, but we also walked up many
the funicular. We boarded it, and then for around levels – at least seven high-ceilinged
15 minutes we were riding up through a dimly lit floors, with the top floor equivalent to
tunnel. I guessed that we had travelled about 1 several normal floors, containing the
km inside the mountain on an inclination, and it huge room with the turbines.
turns out that I was about right – we were now at
an altitude of 1700m via the 24 mm/m gradient When the the Pump Storage Hydro
tunnel. Powerplant was first built, it was
one of many powerplants capable
We saw the terminal, decorated with the logo of of producing 450 MW, but this was
the company, and alighted from the funicular. increased to 520 MW, and today,
There were more double doors, corridors, and with renewable electricity generation
still further doors, until we entered a huge gallery capacity is at 1520 KW. This is as
with lots of equipment, panels and monitors. powerful as a nuclear power plant and
Clear explanations were given about what we makes this plant the biggest in Europe.
would see, and how it all operated. We could also Furthermore, the Linth-Limmern

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