we embark on a journey into and around a former brown coal processing power plant. in the first part we look into what's left of it in the area, and in the second part we'll walk around the industrial area that's around. a lake we saw along the way. someone has live beehives at it. a bus station for the coal mine and the power plants, which is still being used to this day. it does however not see as many passengers as it used to. a former administrative building. a sign is informing us we are entering the area of the former Ervěnice power plant.
it was built in the 1920s mainly to supply power for prague. the first block was able to produce 45MW.
six years after finishing the first, a second block with the power of 25MW was built.
in the late 40s, block Ervěnice II was built - producing 100MW. the older part was now reffered to as Ervěnice I. electricity was made from the nearby brown coal mine Hedvika (later F. D. Roosevelt, later ČSA).
the first block was suspended in 1965. there were plans to build another block in the future - Ervěnice III. it was never realised, instead, the second block was closed in 1980, stopping the entire production. the plant was then demolished through the late 80s. there's not much left of it, except a wall around a weird looking forest filled with concrete blocks, ... ... railway sleepers tossed around, ... ... and a single building, used for offloading coal from wagons. you can see remnants of rail tracks, however noting but the sleepers are left.
there's a little side entrance, which leads to a basement. we'll look there a bit later. the remains are merely a skelet of the building, almost everything is stripped out. some electronics schoolbooks are laying around. the roof is made out of really solid wood, surprised it hasn't gone up in flames yet. the trains got inside by these tracks. the lower parts are filled in with dirt. it would probably be very hard to get back up if you fell down. entering the basement now... the stairway is way longer than it should be, and we forgot our flashlights. a phone must do. at the end - the basement seems to be large. it's sadly filled with water, which is freezing cold. we'll have to return here one day better prepared. finally back on the sunlight, we are heading out of the power plant area now. more overgrown remnants of railroads. newly built electrical poles in the area. in the second part, we'll take a walk around in the industrial brownfield area, filled with power poles, train tracks and climbable towers.