Cycling tour links four Swiss reservoirs in two days

SRF has highlighted a two-day cycling tour that visits four very different reservoirs, travelling from the Zurich Lake region through the high valley of Einsiedeln and deep into the Calfeisen Valley.

The route passes moors, submerged villages and large-scale hydropower structures. It begins at the Teufenbachweiher, a quiet pond below Schönenberg in the canton of Zurich and above the Sihl River.

Although the pond appears to be a small body of water beside the forest, it forms part of a hydropower system that has been producing electricity for more than 130 years. The Teufenbachweiher serves as a storage basin for the Waldhalde power station, officially a run-of-river plant located lower down on the Sihl.

Water flows from the pond through a pressure pipeline over a height difference of about 72 metres to the Waldhalde turbine house. The plant was built between 1893 and 1895 by AG Elektrizitätswerke an der Sihl as the first power station of the Zurich Cantonal Electricity Works.

Waldhalde produces about 14 million kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity each year, enough to supply 3,000 households for a year. The tour’s opening section combines forest paths, birdsong and calm water away from the main tourist flows.

SRF notes that hydropower is an important foundation of Swiss electricity production, including around 1,400 small hydropower plants. Ongoing drought can reduce inflows, shrink water reserves, put pressure on ecosystems and restrict electricity production.