Limits of technology

During the years of World War II and shortly thereafter, a power plant of superlative scale was to be built in the center of Switzerland: with a reservoir capacity of over 1.2 million cubic meters and an installed capacity of nearly 1300 MW, it would have become the largest hydroelectric power plant ever constructed in the Alps. The project had all the technical and energy-economic advantages, but it also had one significant drawback: the reservoir would have flooded the entire Ursern Valley, including the villages of Andermatt, Hospenthal, and Realp. The book explores the reasons why the Ursern project could not be realized. The debate surrounding the Ursern power plant was an expression of a modernization crisis: technological progress clashed with a deep-rooted love for tradition, and the interests of the residents of Ursern in preserving their livelihoods conflicted with the need for a secure national energy supply.