Switch to the Axpo Group website.

Go to Axpo Group website.

Limmern PSP awarded for recultivation

09.09.21 - During the construction of the Limmern pumped storage plant (canton of Glarus), Axpo was responsible for one of Switzerland’s largest building sites, between Tierfehd and Muttenalp. But today there is barely a trace of it to be seen. It’s all thanks to a specialist recultivation project conducted over a number of years, which has now been recognised by the Swiss Association for Engineering Biology. 

The Swiss Association for Engineering Biology awarded its ‘Greener Prize 2021’ to the recultivation project around the Limmern pumped storage plant ‘for the outstanding work before the actual greening and the flawless execution of the work, for the positive cooperation with the authorities and environmental associations, and for raising awareness among the construction companies’.

Around 600 people and countless pieces of heavy machinery were deployed in the construction of the Limmern pumped storage plant between 2009 and 2016, along with two construction cableways. It was already apparent in the planning stage that the construction site and the cableways would place a strain on the environmentally valuable terrain. The builders coordinated the technical possibilities and the definitive recultivation concept with the environmental working group assigned to the project and with the authorities. The stated objective was to ensure that any interventions in the landscape and habitats would be invisible in the medium term.

Test garden 2,500 metres above sea level

Even during the construction phase, specialists commissioned by Axpo were carrying out greening experiments. They collected and propagated seed and plant material in the construction site area at various altitudes. To assess the various greening methods, the resulting plants were planted in a test garden in the Muttsee area. A total of 2,000 seedlings were planted and observed in 25 trial areas. 

For the final recultivation, additional local seed material was collected and propagated to ensure that enough seeds and plants would be available when the demolition work began. And now large parts of the construction area have already returned to nature. Where there was once a construction site and construction cableway, most of the original vegetation has returned.

You can find detailed information about the project in Ingenieurbiologie magazine.

Axpo Holding AG

Corporate Communications

medien@axpo.com

T 0800 44 11 00 (Schweiz) 
T +41 56 200 41 10 (International)

(08.00 - 17.30)

More media releases

Show all

International business 23.12.2021

Axpo appoints Sandro Giannotti to Head of Gas Trading

Axpo has appointed Sandro Giannotti as the company’s Head of Gas Trading, it was announced today. He will take up his new role on the 1st of January 2022, moving from his current position as Axpo’s Head Gas Trading Eastern Europe & Long Term Gas Supply.

Read more

International business 25.05.2021

Axpo Iberia and Grupo Enhol sign a 5-year PPA for new wind farm in Navarra

Axpo Iberia further expanded its long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) business for renewable energy in Spain with the signing of a five-year PPA with Grupo Enhol, it was announced today. The PPA covers electricity generated by a new 50-MW wind farm in the municipality of Buñuel (Ribera de Navarra), which commenced construction this week and is planned to start operating in July 2022.

Read more

Renewable energy 21.10.2020

Energy transition and security of supply are possible but need bold policy decisions

Switzerland can complete the energy transition and achieve security of supply at the same time, according to Axpo CEO Christoph Brand and Chief Economist Martin Koller. Speaking today to representatives from government, industry, politics and academia at an online presentation, they explained how this could be achieved and financed. The necessary expansion of renewable energies is possible, they stressed, if the right approval processes and financing options are put in place.

Read more