Kraftwerk Heimbach is located in the
High Fens – Eifel Nature Park, on the south bank of the
Roer near the
Rur reservoir. It takes its water from the
Urft reservoir, higher. When it was built, it was the largest hydro-electric power station in Europe. In 1895, Otto Intze, a leading expert of water building in Germany, was commissioned by the government of the Rhenish Provinces to look into the area of Urft and Rur, because it was subject to drought in summer and flooding in winter. He arrived at the conclusion that the building of dams should be combined with power stations to make the effort economical. The building of the dams was begun in 1899. The reservoirs were filled by March 1905. The main hall was designed by from
Aachen in
Jugendstil architecture. It had eight
Francis turbines, each serving a
generator of 1.5 MW. The power station was opened on 8 May 1905. It served Aachen, parts of
Cologne, and the
Eifel region. In 1974, the original turbines were taken out of service. Two of them were kept as a historic monument, while others were moved to different locations such as , in the and in
Brauweiler, for historic demonstration. In Heimbach, they were replaced by two more efficient turbines, that served from 1975. The facility was restored in 1990 and 1991.konstruktionen frei überspannt.
mini|links|Schnittbild Kermeter mit Kermeterstollen--> The power station is still in operation, run by . It has an
installed capacity of 16 MW, used mainly to cover
peak demand, usually during morning hours on weekdays. == Culture ==