page_title: Neckar
section_title: Power Stations
hierarchical_section_title: Neckar / Structures / Power Stations
caption_attribution_description: English: Building of the first commercial AC power station at Lauffen am Neckar. Deutsch: Gebäude des ersten kommerziellen Wechselstrom-Kraftwerks in Lauffen am Neckar.
context_page_description: The Neckar is a 362-kilometre-long river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenningen in the Schwenninger Moos conservation area at a height of 706 m above sea level, it passes through Rottweil, Rottenburg am Neckar, Kilchberg, Tübingen, Wernau, Nürtingen, Plochingen, Esslingen, Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg, Marbach, Heilbronn and Heidelberg, before discharging on average 145 m³/s of water into the Rhine at Mannheim, at 95 m above sea level, making the Neckar its 4th largest tributary, and the 10th largest river in Germany. Since 1968, the Neckar has been navigable for cargo ships via 27 locks for about 200 kilometres upstream from Mannheim to the river port of Plochingen, at the confluence with the Fils.
  From Plochingen to Stuttgart, the Neckar valley is densely populated and heavily industrialised, with several well-known companies. Between Stuttgart and Lauffen, the Neckar cuts a scenic, meandering, and in many places steep-sided, valley into fossiliferous Triassic limestones and Pleistocene travertine.
context_section_description: At least since the early 20th century power stations replaced the historical mills. Since then the Neckar has been used for commercial electricity production through hydroelectric power. Several transregionally known hydro plants can be found at the Neckar: 
  In Horb the construction of a hydroelectric plant was begun at the island front at the level oft he Schillerstraße in February 2010. It started producing electricity on April 13, 2011. About 2.3 kWh per year ist he hydroelectric plant to produce yearly in the future. Enough in order to supply about 600 four person households with electricity. Together with the already existing, refurbished facilities it has an average total power of 437 kW. The total investments were about 5.5 million Euro.
  In Rottenburgs district Bad Niedernau the Wasserkraftwerk Bad Niedernau can be found.
  In Rottenburg am Neckar the two power plants Beim Preußischen and Tübinger Straße.
  In Kiebingen the Rottenburger clock factory Junghans did run since 1903 their own power plant, which still produces electricity today. For the clock factory the plant run by water and steam was overdimensioned, therefore the overproduction was sold. Today the historic powerhouse is under monumental protection. Despite its age the power plant is a very modern plant with three characteristics: The turbines have an innovative scoop shape which has been developed with computer simulations, special Thordon-Turbine bearings and inflatable rubber dam. A fish pass recreates since the modernization the pervasiveness for the fish migration at the weir.
  The hydroelectric plant Tübingen-Hirschau is located between Hirschau and Tübingen as well as the Wasserkraftwerk Rappenberghalde which was constructed in 1930. It was refurbished in 1999 and today the two Kaplan turbines produce together with the residual water turbine at the weir upstream in Hirschau 7 million kWh electricity per year. Per second more than 22 cubic metres of water flow through a 1.7 km long supply canal to the plant. The plant uses the incline of the Neckar of 7.5 meters.
  The Wasserkraftwerk Neckarwerk in Tübingen was constructed together with the weir within the frame of the Neckar regulation as one of the first roller dams in Germany in 1910/1911. It is used for the electricity generation as well as the control of the river. Through the weir the water level of the Neckar in Tübingen center is managed. Before the construction of the weir the Neckar was full of gravel banks and hat a very flat waterfront. This can be seen on many photographs and drawings prior to the construction. Moreover, floods, which now and then flooded the back then only few buildings in Wöhrd and sometimes threatened the Neckar bridge have been eliminated with this weir and the other weirs (e.g. in Rottenburg). For fish a fish ladder has been constructed later on. The pedestrian bridge over the weir is an important connection of the two waterfronts between Lustnau and the central Eberhards or Neckar bridge. It also provides a nice view of Neckar, historic city center, abbey church and castle.
  The Kraftwerk Oberesslingen is a run-of-the-river hydroelectricity plant between two Neckar islands at river kilometer 195.6 in Oberesslingen. The plant was constructed in 1929 in the frame of the upgrading to a heavy waterway according to a design made by the architect Paul Bonatz. It has a capacity of 2.1 MW and delivers per year about 12.3 GWh energy. The average flow ist 45 cubic meter per second.
  In Esslingen a new run-of-the-river hydroelectricity plant has been constructed on the Hechtkopf. With a power of 1.25 MW and a yearly electricity production of 7.1 GWh 4000 people can be supplied with electricity. With the construction of this new power plant the last of the barrages on the Neckar has been equipped with turbines. It is framed by a weir in the Neckar on one side and the historical bridge house over the Hammerkanal (hammer canal) on the other side.
  The Drehstromübertragung Lauffen–Frankfurt was on August, 25th 1891 the worldwide first transmission of electric energy with high voltage
caption: Das Kraftwerk von Lauffen am Neckar 1891
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1358", "Image ImageLength": "818", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:09:05 13:09:59", "Image ExifOffset": "256", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "394", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5817", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1358", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "818"}