illwerke vkw: Powering Vorarlberg With Alpine Hydropower

illwerke vkw operates the bulk of Vorarlberg's electricity supply through hydropower plants with roughly 2,500 megawatts of turbine capacity and 1,400 megawatts of pumping capacity, including the high-efficiency Obervermuntwerk II pumped-storage plant. Its subsidiary VKW-Ökostrom supplies customers with electricity drawn entirely from more than 1,500 small hydro, solar, biogas and wind installations across the region, and independent WWF/GLOBAL 2000 electricity-labelling checks note it is the only Austrian state utility that neither runs nor is affiliated with fossil-fuel power plants. The company plans to invest around 9 billion euros by 2040 in renewable generation and grid upgrades, including 2.65 billion euros for Lünerseewerk II, set to become Austria's largest pumped-storage power plant when it comes online.