BKW's Turbach Plant Enters Service, but the Real Story Is Three Projects at Three Different Stages
Published on 10/31/2026 at 15:51 | Editorial boerse-global.de
BKW and partner aventron have flipped the switch on the Turbach hydroelectric plant in Saanen, roughly two years after construction began. The company confirmed the start-up yesterday. For shareholders, the milestone shifts the project from build-out to generation — though it offers little to explain the stock's recent trading.
What the plant actually delivers
Turbach carries a capacity of 2.5 megawatts and is designed to feed about 7.3 gigawatt-hours of renewable power into the grid each year. The price tag came in at around CHF 16 million. That annual output figure is a target, not a measured result: the facility is running, but a full operating year has yet to be booked, so the production number remains an expectation rather than proven performance.
Ownership matters for how the news should be read. The project company, Kraftwerk Turbach AG, is held 55% by BKW and 45% by aventron, giving BKW majority control — but Turbach is a jointly carried venture, not a wholly owned asset. The stated construction costs likewise cover the entire plant and are not broken out as BKW's sole investment.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BKW?
A wind farm still on the drawing board
The hydro start-up slots into a broader expansion path. Three weeks ago, BKW announced it would acquire the Öhringen-Karlsfurt wind farm in Baden-Württemberg from ABO Energy. That park comprises seven turbines totaling 33.6 megawatts and is expected to produce more than 80 GWh a year.
Its commissioning, however, is slated for the first quarter of 2027 — a planning anchor, not a record of electricity already generated. The contrast with Turbach is the point: one project has finished construction, the other is still waiting for its start date. Investors are better served keeping the two timelines apart than lumping all generation forecasts together as capacity already in hand.
The Gerber file is a separate matter
A third thread runs alongside the energy projects. Germany's Federal Cartel Office is reviewing BKW's indirect acquisition of control and shareholding in Gerber Architekten GmbH and Gerber Architekten International GmbH. The filing, dated 19 October, carries the case number B1-149/26.
That notification does not equal a completed takeover. The distinction between procedural stages is what counts when weighing the latest announcements: Turbach is producing power, the wind farm's start-up lies ahead, and the Gerber stake remains inside a merger-control review. Of the three, the new hydro plant is the one that has moved furthest into operation.
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