---
title: "“How to get more power out of water”: the FAZ in 2011"
author: "Erlach & Erlach GmbH"
date: 2026-10-12
language: en
canonical: https://www.erlach-erlach.com/en/journal/faz-2011-horizontal-pelton-turbine/
license: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
---

# “How to get more power out of water”: the FAZ in 2011

*In 2011 the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung presented Josef Erlach’s invention: the horizontal Pelton turbine with up to six nozzles, today the Pelton turbine System Erlach.*

Erlach & Erlach, Journal, 2026-10-12. Web page: [/en/journal/faz-2011-horizontal-pelton-turbine/](/en/journal/faz-2011-horizontal-pelton-turbine/)

*“Vertically standing Pelton turbines can be driven by six nozzles / The spray is channelled” (German subheading: „Senkrecht stehende Pelton-Turbinen können aus sechs Düsen angestrahlt werden / Die Gischt wird kanalisiert“)*

![Excerpt from the article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 13 September 2011: text column and photo of a Pelton runner](../../assets/bilder/faz-2011-wie-man-mehr-strom-aus-dem-wasser-holen-kann.jpg)

*Excerpt from the article, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 13 September 2011, photo Helga Lade. All rights with the rights holders; the image is not under CC BY.*

With these lines Georg Küffner headed his report on Josef Erlach’s invention in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on 13 September 2011 (German headline: „Wie man mehr Strom aus dem Wasser holen kann“). What stands vertically is the runner; the shaft is horizontal. That is the [Pelton turbine System Erlach](/en/pelton-turbine/).

Küffner begins his article with Josef Erlach’s youth. As an apprentice at the Kaprun power station he saw four Pelton turbines producing 240 megawatts from a head of 860 metres. Then Küffner shows the problem: until then, six nozzles could only be placed around the runner on a vertical shaft, with an expensive distributor and an elaborate bearing. On a horizontal shaft the water splashes back onto the runner.

The tinkerer Erlach, as Küffner calls him, found the solution rather intuitively: a ring on the axis that keeps the discharged water away from the runner. This lets the horizontal machine take up to six nozzles instead of two, fed from pipe sections of standard sizes.

Erlach could prove the higher efficiency. The prototype ran at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences under Professor Thomas Staubli, who according to the FAZ confirmed the advantages in principle and saw a market for horizontal multi-nozzle Pelton turbines.

*Source: Georg Küffner, „Wie man mehr Strom aus dem Wasser holen kann“, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung no. 213, 13 September 2011, p. T 10. The article is [on faz.net](https://www.faz.net/aktuell/technik-motor/technik/pelton-turbinen-wie-man-mehr-strom-aus-dem-wasser-holen-kann-11166160.html) (online since 14 September 2011) and as the print version [in the F.A.Z. archive](https://fazarchiv.faz.net/document?id=FAZ__931046366f4a970c29a07b32caef7e0151fa0fe9), both paid.*