BergWind Develops Modular Wind Turbines For Drag Lift And Cable Car Cables

BergWind-Seilbahnkraftwerke is a start-up founded in 2023 from Vöcklabruck, Upper Austria. 

The goal is to develop modular wind turbines that can be attached to ski lift and cable car cables to generate sustainable electricity. This increases the profitability of the ski lifts and cable cars, as they are only operated for a small part of the year. 

Ski lift and cable car operators are coming under social pressure because the energy required to make snow in ski areas is increasing. At the same time, energy prices are rising and the profitability of ski lifts and cable cars is falling. Some of the cable cars are only used 20% of the year, but they have to be maintained all year round. At the same time, the expansion of wind turbines is stagnating because residents often oppose their construction. PV modules require a lot of space and lead to undesirable soil sealing, especially in open-air systems.

With the BergWind turbines, the profitability of ski lifts and cable cars can be increased by coupling modular wind turbines to the cable car cable to generate sustainable electricity, which can then either be used for the snowmaking systems or fed into the grid. 

The process, for which a patent has been applied, provides that instead of gondolas, drag lifts or chair lifts, so-called energy modules (small wind turbines) are clamped onto the cable and threaded up to the mountain station. The hoisting rope is switched off and the cable car is then in power plant operation. When setting up conventional wind turbines in the mountains, the structural effort is enormous. The construction of the foundation, the installation and maintenance of the wind turbine can only be done with cranes and sometimes even a helicopter transport is required for the transport of the building materials and the installation of the power cable. In contrast, a BergWind turbine can be simply coupled like a gondola at the valley station and brought to the required height using a cable car. 

After the first prototype has been successfully created, the budget for the first series tire products is now being collected via Kickstarter.

For more details on the start-up and the status of development, please get in touch with the following: 

Ibrahim Sagerer-Foric BSc MSc 

BergWind cable car power plants 

+43 664 3802857