• About
  • Photography
    • Databoilers
    • Energy Caves
    • Islands of Energy
    • The Cloud Factory
    • ITER The Machine
    • Vanishing Glaciers: The Forni Valley
    • Real Food
    • Tiber Monsters
    • Covid2 Hospital, Rome
    • Ecowarrios
  • Motion
    • Emergenza Covid
    • Life Jacket
Instagram Facebook Linkedin
  • About
  • Photography
    • Databoilers
    • Energy Caves
    • Islands of Energy
    • The Cloud Factory
    • ITER The Machine
    • Vanishing Glaciers: The Forni Valley
    • Real Food
    • Tiber Monsters
    • Covid2 Hospital, Rome
    • Ecowarrios
  • Motion
    • Emergenza Covid
    • Life Jacket
Instagram Facebook Linkedin

Caves of energy

Inside the demodulation basin of the Sant’Antonio sul Talvera hydroelectric plant, the aesthetic involvement is as intense as it is unexpected. It is an artificial reservoir created inside the Monte Tondo which overlooks Bolzano. It collects the water used by the turbines to generate energy and gradually reintroduces it into the Talvera River. The artificial lake is dug into the porphyritic rock and is illuminated by coloured lights and a system of mirrors that generate chromatic reflections. Here waves of color alternate on the surface of the water varying hue and intensity: they appear and disappear in the darkness of the cave with an almost hypnotizing rhythm.
This series tells of a cutting-edge place of energy production from renewables sources and how a community and its territory benefit from this fascinating environmental safety device.

Water generates energy in the underground demodulation basin of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant near Bolzano, Italy. After the modernization works completed in 2019, the plant's annual production capacity is 300GWh, equal to the consumption of around 100,000 households.
One of the caverns of the underground demodulation basin of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant near Bolzano, Italy. The basin, entirely excavated in the "Monte Tondo" mountain, has a capacity of 900,000 liters of water and is illuminated by a system of colored lights.
An access tunnel to the underground plant. The entire system of tunnels that make up the plant is 2 km long and 1.5 km deep.
Marco B., 45-year-old electrician, during his work shift inside a tunnel in the Val d'Auna dam, Soprobolzano (BZ), Italy

In the belly of a mountain one discovers the unexpected beauty of a breathtaking panorama which distracts from the original function of the basin, that is to say of being an intermediate station where the water decelerates its violent flow to flow gently into its receptor avoiding peaks in its flow. An environmental safety device wrapped in a cocoon of coloured light, created to improve the production efficiency of a cutting-edge hydroelectric plant and mitigate the damage associated with hydropeaking.
In the hydroelectric lexicon, this term defines the practice of releasing pulses of water to increase energy production and meet peak daily electricity demand. But it can cause damage that affects different aspects. The discontinuous water flows alter the morphology of the river channel, move the sediments of the river bed, damage aquatic life because they destroy the incubation areas of the fauna by dispersing the fish eggs. Thanks to the basin, on the other hand, even the human activities that swarm on the banks of the Talvera become safer, since the underground lake graduates the return flow of the water, avoiding sudden floods.

View of the Val d'Auna dam, Soprabolzano, Italy which supplies the Sant'Antonio power station with water. The dam has a capacity of 400,000 cubic meters of water and from its basin begins a path of underground pipelines 1500 meters deep and approximately 10 km long which transport the water to the plant.
View of the Val d'Auna dam, Soprabolzano, Italy which supplies the Sant'Antonio power station with water. The dam has a capacity of 400,000 cubic meters of water and from its basin begins a path of underground pipelines 1500 meters deep and approximately 10 km long which transport the water to the plant.
The underground tunnel dug into the mountain "Monte Tondo" which leads to the entrance of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant in Bolzano, Italy.

The new Sant’Antonio power plant, fed by the Talvera river, went into operation in May 2019 and replaced the old one, dating back to 1951, which had a much lower production. It is an innovative and pioneering project under several aspects. Access to the plant is unique in Europe because it is entirely built in a tunnel in the heart of the “Monte Tondo” mountain in Bolzano.
For the first time in the world, a large underground tank with a capacity of 99,000 m³ was built as a compensation basin to reduce the hydropeaking effect of the receiver, the Talvera stream, and therefore significantly improve the quality of aquatic ecology and the safety of the river course for recreational uses. A total of 1.8 km of tunnels were excavated, of which over 500 meters in “free fall”. The water thus arrives from a dam in Val Sarentino with a flow rate of 18 m2/s to the three underground turbines which have a total power of 90 Mw.

Francesco, a 36-year-old electrician, installs guides for monitoring the water level in the Sant'Antonio plant, in Bolzano, Italy.
The demodulation basin is divided into interconnected caverns connected by metal platforms.
View of one of the caverns of the underground demodulation basin of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant near Bolzano, Italy. The basin reduces the hydropeaking effect of the recipient, the Talvera stream, and significantly improves the quality of aquatic ecology and the safety of the river course for recreational uses.
A heat exchanger inside the demodulation basin of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant in Bolzano, Italy.
View of one of the caverns of the underground demodulation basin of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant near Bolzano, Italy. The basin reduces the hydropeaking effect of the recipient, the Talvera stream, and significantly improves the quality of aquatic ecology and the safety of the river course for recreational uses.
An installation of mirrors in the cavern of the Sant'Antonio hydroelectric plant near Bolzano, Italy. The plays of light designed inside the caves return a unique and intense experience of positivity and create connections with the inner depths of human nature.

Who visits this place reach a hydroelectric plant but discover to be part of an installation, an aesthetic environment made of darkness, light and iridescent colours specially designed to interrogate the human soul and its relationship with the waterfall. The basin is divided into three differently lit caverns. The humidity generated by the waterfalls that fill the reservoirs soars into the air to shimmer in color. It almost seems that the light is tactile, one gets the impression of being able to touch the luminous color with the hands.
Today the artificial lake is a bright, aesthetic and fascinating theatre, but at the beginning of the works it was instead a tiring and hostile environment like that of a mine. After all, the dozens of tunnels and underground caves that structure it, as well as the tanks themselves capable of holding up to 100,000 cubic meters of water, were obtained through excavations and controlled explosions. The lights and mirrors that dot the walls of the rock, in fact, were tailor-made to resist the most difficult conditions of dirt and corrosiveness, and to withstand an operating environment with humidity over 95%. Inside the caves, the luminous and chromatic intermittence that paints the surface of the water induces the viewer to an intimate and chromo-therapeutic, almost gestational dimension, and transforms the caves into metaphorical temples of recovery or rebirth.

The turbine hall of the underground hydroelectric plant. The turbines generate a power of 90MW and allow the annual production of 300GW/h.
View of the Talvera stream near Bolzano, Italy. The river is less than a meter deep and its bed is very irregular. The basin of the plant has reduced the peak flows downstream from 1:16 to 1:4, making it safer and contributing to the protection of aquatic fauna.
A hydrometric station for monitoring the waters of the Talvera near Bolzano, Italy.

«I worked in gas masks and mud up to my knees. When I started, the caves and tunnels were still full of debris and the air was unbreathable. In those conditions it is exhausting to travel even a single meter. It was a very tiring job, which also put my body to the test». It is the voice of Herward Dunkel, the creator of the lighting design implemented in the plant and creator of a phantasmagoria of lights and colours that reconfigures the nature of an industrial space in a permanent art installation.
«I was surrounded by darkness, water and mud. I heard the noises of cars and construction coming from outside faint and muffled, while inside my every breath, word or hammering sound echoed in the artificial gorges. I had muffled and confused perception of sounds. It felt like going back to my mother’s womb» says the South Tyrolean designer who with this project wins, among others, the German Design Award in 2021.
The metaphorical sense of Dunkel’s installation is not resolved solely in the caves filled with water but also invests the territory in which the work is located. «The main function of the basin is to safeguard the mountain environment. The underground lake avoids floods and fish shock, and makes the river bed safer. It is an opportunity for rebirth and healing not only for those inside, but also for the mountain itself and for everything around it».

The Talvera river near Bolzano, Italy. Over the past 50 years 21 people have drowned in the river due to causes related to the flash floods generated by the peaks in the flow.
Julian, an 18-year-old student, plays with his skateboard in a park along the Talvera in Bolzano, Italy.
Beatrice and her mother Miriam throw stones along the banks of the Talvera in Bolzano, Italy.
Jonathann, a 22-year-old cook, on the Talvera bridge in Bolzano, Italy.

© 2023 Luigi Avantaggiato | VAT IT04778820755 | All rights reserved | Cookie Policy | Privacy Policy © 2023 Luigi Avantaggiato and www.luigiavantaggiato.photography. Unauthorized use of text or photography and/or duplication without the explicit written authorization of the author and/or owner of the site are strictly prohibited.