Infrastructure

Salto de Adeadávila

The Salto de Adeadávila, also known as the Aldeadávila Dam, is the most significant construction site in Spain in terms of hydroelectric production, situated 11 km south of the village of Aldeadávila.

This impressive engineering feat capitalises on the high flows and substantial waterfalls that characterise this international section of the Duero River.

The scale of this ambitious project presented a multitude of challenges. It was established that to implement this project, the spillways must have the capacity to evacuate flows more than 10,000m3/s. Similarly, the materials required to construct the dam were not available in Spain at the time, necessitating the adoption of techniques that had been employed in the United States since the 1940s. The morphology of the Douro gorges presented a significant challenge to the construction process.

Nevertheless, in 1962, the construction of Aldeadávila I was successfully completed at this river crossing. In 1986, the construction of Aldeadávila II was further advanced. The initial phase of this remarkable engineering project was constructed with an installed capacity of 718,000 kW. A total of six 119,700 kW Francis turbines were employed for this purpose. At the time of its construction, it was the largest hydroelectric generating dam in Western Europe.

To facilitate the expansion of Aldeadávila II, two additional Francis turbines were employed to pump water from the Saucelle reservoir, thereby enabling the achievement of an annual production capacity of 2,400 GW. In addition to the Aldeadávila waterfall, the Saucelle and Villarino dams have been constructed, collectively forming the largest hydroelectric production complex in Spain. The estimated average production of this complex is 5,000 GWh. This would be equivalent to 40% of Castilla y León's total hydroelectric production and an estimated 12% of national production.

Regarding the characteristics of the dam, it is a gravity arch dam constructed from concrete. The crest is 333 metres in height and 250 metres in length. This remarkable feat of engineering can contain a volume of 114.3 million cubic metres of water, distributed across an area of 268 hectares.

This section of the Douro River has been designated a protected landscape. It is also worth noting that the Aldeadávila Dam has been the backdrop for a wide variety of films, at least according to anecdotal evidence.