10 Largest Dams In The World

10. Oahe Dam, South Dakota (USA) (70,339 cubic meters)

The Oahe Dam is a large dam along the Missouri River, just north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. It creates Lake Oahe, the fourth largest artificial reservoir  in the United States, which stretches 231 miles (372 km) up the course of the Missouri to Bismarck, North Dakota. The dam’s powerplant provides electricity for much of the north-central United States. It is named for the Oahe Indian Mission established among the Lakota Sioux in 1874. The project provides flood control, electric power, irrigation, and navigation benefits, estimated by the Corps of Engineers at $150,000,000 per year.

9. Guri (Raúl Leoni) (Venezuela) (78,000 cubic meters)

 

The Guri Dam is a large dam in Bolívar State, Venezuela  on the Caroni River. It is 1300 meters long and 162 m high. Construction began in 1963; the first part concluded in 1978 and the second in 1986. The Hydroelectric Power station Guri was constructed in the Necuima Canyon, 100 kilometers waters above of the mouth of the Caroní River in the Orinoco. There are two machine rooms with ten generators each, producing a total of 87 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. As of 2009, the hydroelectric plant is the third-largest in the world, with 10,200 MW capacity.

8. Yacyretá-Apipe, (Paraguay/Argentina) (81,000 cubic meter)

 

The dam was built over the waterfalls of Jasyretâ-Apipé in the Paraná River, between the Argentine Province of Corrientes and the Paraguayan  department of Misiones. The dam is named for Yacyretâ Island just upstream, much of which the dam submerged. The dam is 808 meters long, and its installed equipment has a maximum power output of 4,050 MW, with an annual maximum power output of 19,080 GWh, and a maximum water flow rate of 55,000 cubic meters per second. However, because its reservoir is seven meters below its planned water level, the dam currently operates at only 60% capacity.

7. Atatürk Dam (Turkey) (84,500 cubic meters)

 

The Atatürk Dam is a zoned rock-fill dam with a central core on the Euphrates River on the border of Adyaman Province and Anlurfa Province in Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. Built both to generate electricity and to irrigate the plains in the region. The construction began in 1983 and was completed in 1990. The dam embankment is 169 m (554 ft) high and 1,820 m (5,970 ft) long. The hydroelectric power plant (HEPP) has a total installed power capacity of 2,400 MW generating 8,900 GWh  electricity annually.

6. Tucurui Dam (Brazil) (85,200 cubic meters)

 

The Tucuruí Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tocantins River located on the Tucuruí County in Brazil. The name “Tucuruí” was taken from a little city that existed near the construction site; there is now a city of the same name just downstream of the dam. The installed generation capacity of the plant is 8,370 MW, with 24 generating units. The Tucuruí spillway was the largest in the world with 120,000m3/s of capacity of discharge, until it was edged out in 2008 by the 120,600m3/s maximum discharge of the Three Gorges complex in China.

5. Lower Usuma (Nigeria) (93,000  cubic meters)

 

Lower Usuma is the name of a dam on the Usuma river in Nigeria. It was built in 1990 near Abuja, the new capital of Nigeria, and supplied the city with drinking water. The dam holds 93 million cubic meters of raw water, the water flow to five water plants, where the water is treated before it is passed to Abuja. The total capacity of the water is 10,000 cubic meters per hour.

4. Fort Peck, Montana (USA) (96,049 cubic meters)

 

The Fort Peck Dam is the highest of six major dams along the Missouri River, located in northeast Montana in the United States, near Glasgow, and adjacent to the community of Fort Peck. At 21,026 feet (6,409 m) in length and over 250 feet (76 m) in height, it is the largest hydraulically filled dam in the United States, and creates Fort Peck Lake, the fifth largest man-made lake in the U.S. It lies within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. The dam and 134-mile (216 km) long lake exist for the purposes of hydroelectric power generation, flood control, and water quality management. The dam presently has a nameplate capacity of 185,250 kilowatts, divided among 5 generating units. Three units in powerhouse number one, completed in 1951, generate a total of 105,000 kilowatts. Completed in 1961, the two remaining generating units in powerhouse number 2, have a nameplate capacity of 80,000 kilowatts.

3. Tarbela (Pakistan) (121,720 cubic meters)

 

Tarbela Dam is a large dam on the Indus River in Pakistan. It is located in Haripur District, Hazara  Division, Khyber pakhtunkhwa, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) northwest of Islamabad. The dam is 485 feet (148 m) high above the riverbed. The dam forms the Tarbela Reservoir, with a surface area of approximately 250-square-kilometre (97 sq mi). The dam was completed in 1974 and was designed to store water from the Indus River for irrigation, flood control, and the generation of hydroelectric power.

2. Samara / Zhiguli Dam (Russia) (169,000,000 cubic meters)

 

Samara Dam is a large dam and hydroelectric station on the Volga River, located near Zhigulyovsk  and Tolyatti  in Samara Oblast of Russia. It is the sixth stage of the Volga-Kama Cascade of dams, and the second of them by installed power.

1. Three Gorges (China) (39,300,000 cubic meters)

 

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River in the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in the Hubei  province, China. It is the world’s largest electricity-generating plant of any kind. The dam body was completed in 2006. Except for a ship lift, all of the originally planned components of the project were completed on October 30, 2008 when the 26th generator was brought into commercial operation. Currently, it contains 26 completed generators in the shore power plant, each with a capacity of 700 MW.