Palü Lake
| Palü Lake | |
|---|---|
 | |
  Palü Lake  Palü Lake  Palü Lake  Palü Lake | |
| Location | Grisons |
| Coordinates | 46°22′22″N 10°01′33″E / 46.37278°N 10.02583°E |
| Type | natural lake, reservoir |
| Basin countries | Switzerland |
| Surface area | 5.2 ha (13 acres)[1] |
| Surface elevation | 1,923 m (6,309 ft) |
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Palü Lake (Italian: Lago Palü, Romansh: Lagh da Palü, German Palüsee) is a lake below Piz Palü in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. It has an elevation of 1,923 m (6,309 ft) and a surface area of 5.2 ha (13 acres). Water from Palü Glacier feeds into the lake.[2]
In 1926, a dam was built enabling use of the lake as a reservoir. The nearby Palü hydro-electric power station has an installed capacity of 10 MW and is fed by a pressurised pipe-line from Lago Bianco. The outfall from this plant, along with water from Lago Palü, feeds an underground pipeline to the Cavaglia power station at Cavaglia. The 800-metre (2,600 ft) tunnel connecting the two plants also accommodates a funicular railway that is open to the public during tours of the plants.[2][3][4]
Description
[edit]Palü Lake is a small proglacial lake lake perched on a hanging shelf north of Alp Grüm, backed by the serrated icefalls of the Palü Glacier. Meltwater laden with rock flour gives the 5.2-ha basin its milky-turquoise colour, and the short outflow forms the Cavagliasch stream, which plunges 250 m to meet the Poschiavino. A natural moraine once dammed the lake, but in 1926 engineers embedded a 14-m-high gravity wall inside the moraine core and raised the level by about 8 m to create seasonal storage.[5]
The impounded water feeds Centrale Palü, the first stage in Repower's Val Poschiavo cascade. From the lake a pressure tunnel channels up to 4,500 litres per second down a 230 m-head to two Pelton turbines that have generated power since 1927; as of 2025, the station delivers 10 MW and typically produces 24 GWh a year. After passing the generators, the water continues through the 800-m service tunnel—shared with a maintenance funicular—to Cavaglia and then through successive plants at Robbia and Campocologno, squeezing five uses from the same water before it joins the Adda.[5]
Because Alp Grüm railway station (2,091 m) sits on a ledge directly above the lake, it offers an unobstructed view of Lago Palü, the Palü Glacier and upper Val Poschiavo. A way-marked footpath of about 3 km (45 min, 250 m descent) leads from the station through larch woodland and alpine meadow to the shoreline, where information panels describe local glacial change and the hydropower scheme; the route is usually snow-free from late June to October.[6]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Area retrieved from Google Earth (July 2013)
- ^ a b "Maps of Switzerland" (Map). map.geo.admin.ch. Swiss Confederation. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
- ^ "Wasserkraftwerke" [Hydroelectric power plants] (in German). Repower. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
- ^ Azéma, Michel. "Die Puschlaver Geisterbahn". Funimag. Retrieved 26 October 2020.
- ^ a b "Centrale Palü" (in Italian). Repower AG. Retrieved 29 April 2025.
- ^ "Alp Grüm". Switzerland Tourism. Retrieved 29 April 2025.