Alqueva Dam

The Alqueva (Portuguese Barragem do Alqueva ), is a 250 square kilometer reservoir on the border of southern Portugal to the south-west Spain.

He got his name from the village alqueva, which lies on its banks.

Geography

The Alqueva dam is located on the Rio Guadiana. West of him agrees with the Portuguese Alentejo countryside. The Spanish Extremadura extends to its eastern shores. Its northern end marks the place Badajoz ( Spain), its southern Moura (Portugal).

History

Even the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar in 1957 allowed investigations whether the economics of Guadiana Dam perform. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974 started in 1976, work on the first construction phase, but these were already set two years later. There followed a decade- long discussion about the project.

1993, the Portuguese government decided to resume the project. The DIAE ( Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infra - Estruturas do Alqueva ) was founded in 1995 to build and operate the Alqueva project.

In the same year, the official start of construction. During the seven -year construction period, the village of Aldeia da Luz had to be relocated because it was in the zone to overflowing. The plant was completed in 2002 and on 8 February 2002, the flood gates were closed and the reservoir began to fill.

In reservoir perished are many archaeological places including the Castelo da Lousa and the Cromlech of Xerez.

Plant

Reservoir

The Alqueva, which is 85 km long, has a surface area of ​​about 250 square kilometers, of which 187 in Portugal. With a storage capacity of 4.15 billion cubic meters, it is a maximum of one of Europe's highest-volume reservoirs west of the Dnieper. The volume of Edertalsperre could be accommodated here more than 20 times. Its shoreline is reported variously 1100-1200 kilometers, which run from about 1000 in Portugal.

Dam

The Alqueva dam ( Escalão do Alqueva ) is 458 meters long and 96 meters high. It has a volume of 687,000 cubic meters of concrete.

Power station

Connected to the dam is a hydroelectric power plant opened in 2004. It has an installed electrical capacity of 2 × 129.6 MW.

Leisure

It is allowed on the lake motor boats (private, up to 7 meters in length and 150 hp) and sailboats (private, up to 7 meters in length ) to drive. In addition, water skiing, swimming and fishing are permitted. Jet skiing and parasailing are all but banned on the water.