Home -> My mountain trips -> June 29th, 2005 -> Picture # 13
13. Chiotas dam and lake (182 kB) [Index] - [<<] - [>>] - [All for June 29th, 2005] - []
From the Colle di Chiapous (2526m) the trail winds town towards the Chiotas artificial lake at some 1980m. Here one can find the biggest hydroelectric power plant in Italy (1400MWh). The lake is formed by two dams, one very big and visible in the picture (Chiotas) and another small one, called Colle Laura, hidden from the view by a rock next to the overflow.

This power plant is interesting especially because it is reversible; during the day the water flows from Chiotas lake (1980m) to Piastra lake (some 950m) thus generating electricity along the kilometer-long fall; during the night the water is raised again from the lower lake to the upper one using the cheap energy from the termic and nuclear plants which can't be shut off when the energy demand is low; the next day the cycle starts again. Actually this plant is a huge storage facility, converting during the night the electricity into the water's potential energy.

There are few such power plants in the world; in Romania we don't have any.