Hydro power dams: breathtaking architectural design. Pure, beautiful yet functional constructions that provide awesome backdrops for blockbuster films - or inspire people's devotion, such as that of Leif Kuhlin, a baker from the small rural town of Filipstad, who spends his holidays admiring the beauty of domesticated power.
Some people are keen on sports statistics, others on steam locomotives or racing cars. For Leif Kuhlin, 38, it is hydro power plants that float his boat. Over the last twelve years, Kuhlin has devoted an average of one week's holiday a year to visiting and documenting Sweden's hydro power plants. He now has 1,500 of them on his website vattenkraft.info, which has become the most comprehensive information source for hydro power plants in the country.
News from Vattenfall meets Kuhlin in Älvkarleby, about 150 kilometres north of Stockholm. The hydro power plant is a century old, and next to it is Vattenfall's hydro laboratory, where accurate models of various hydro plants are constructed on a scale of 1:50. They allow engineers to study the way that flows, waves, eddies and water speeds affect a design before they start full-scale projects.
Head of Operations Jonas Wilde welcomes us. We stand in the lab's large hall at a model that he is unable to name off the cuff. But Kuhlin immediately identifies the power plant's dam.
"I recognise the design, it's one of E.ON's power plants in the Ångerman River, but I'm a bit unsure about the name. Could it be Storfinnfors?"
Of course he is right.
AN ABUNDANT SOURCE
There are more than two thousand hydro power plants of major importance in Sweden. Some 1,500 of them are included on Kuhlin's website, which is packed with facts and is now used by employees from all the large energy companies.
"The website is really perspicuous and easy to navigate for anyone who wants quick access to basic facts about hydro power and its installations," confirms Wilde, who often uses it as a reference source.
In everyday life, Kuhlin works at a bakery in Filipstad where he controls the baking processes in Wasabröd's factory (largest producer of the popular Scandinavian crisp-bread). He started his hobby project in 2003 and now spends about ten hours a week extending and updating the website.
His interest in hydro power was awoken by a study visit, he says:
"I accompanied a friend who works at the small hydro power plant in Filipstad," he explains. "It was fascinating and I wanted to learn more, but soon realised that there was not that much information available. So I began to collect it myself. I also happened to be on a computer course at that time and needed a suitable topic for creating a website, so one thing led to another."
