Court definitively blocks Koralm pumped-storage project

The planned pumped-storage power plant on the Koralm in Styria will not be built, ORF reported on Thursday. Austria’s Administrative Court has rejected the remaining appeals, confirming the withdrawal of the project’s environmental approval.

The approval had effectively been revoked three years ago. The project developer, Pumpspeicherkraftwerk Koralm GmbH, initially received approval in 2021 from the state of Styria for the large-scale project on the Styrian side of the Koralm, in the district of Deutschlandsberg.

Seventeen parties appealed the decision. Following a review by the Federal Administrative Court in 2023, further investigations and consultations with additional experts, the appeals were upheld and the environmental approval was withdrawn.

The project developer then challenged that ruling before the Constitutional Court, which rejected the complaint. It subsequently filed an extraordinary appeal with the Administrative Court. That court has now also rejected the appeal and confirmed the Federal Administrative Court’s decision. The project in its current form is therefore definitively off the table.

Wolfgang Rehm of the environmental organisation Virus called the ruling “an important success for nature conservation”. He said the decision provided legal certainty after both of Austria’s highest appeal courts had upheld the 2023 ruling.

Sandra Krautwaschl, leader of the Styrian Greens, also described the project’s final rejection as an important success for nature conservation. She said the ruling showed that large interventions in nature required careful, technically robust and environmentally compatible planning from the outset.