Kaprun Oberstufe is a 260 MW hydro power station in Salzburg, Austria. It is operated by Verbund. Based on reported annual generation of 227 GWh, it can supply roughly 65k homes. It ranks #21 of 131 Austria power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1956, it is around 70 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 51.8% of Austria's electricity; the national grid averages 117 gCO₂/kWh (83.6% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1005192.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The public capacity above is the current source-record value. A 2026 tracker candidate lists 260 MW for Kaprun Oberstufe hydroelectric plant, but it is not used as the public primary value until scope is verified (unit vs operating vs installed/project total).
Capacity claim grade: A3_MAJOR_REVIEW_SCOPE_STATUS - recommended action: manual_scope_status_check - confidence: low_until_scope_verified. This follows a claim-based data model: value + scope + source + confidence, rather than silently overwriting records.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000600113); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 260 MW, Kaprun Oberstufe is well above the median hydro plant in Austria (30 MW). Technically it is described as pumped storage. Hydropower converts the energy of falling or flowing water into electricity; output depends on rainfall and reservoir level, and large dams also provide grid balancing and storage.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Annual generation (GWh), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Verbund. All plants by this company →
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a polar tundra climate (Köppen ET) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 47.2°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 193% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 100/100 — this site sits in the top third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a benign, low-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C1 — Very low), with thermal cycling the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #12 largest hydro power plant of 96 in Austria by capacity.
Austria has 96 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 9,237 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 47.1968, 12.7192 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Kaprun Oberstufe is a 260 MW source-record hydro power plant in Salzburg, Austria, commissioned in 1956.
Kaprun Oberstufe generates about 227 GWh of electricity per year.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 64,828 homes.
Kaprun Oberstufe is operated by Verbund.
