Barrage de la Grande Dixence, Switzerland

 A card, won in a lottery, from sandy_martin


The Grande Dixence Dam (in French - Barrage de la Grande Dixence) is a concrete gravity dam on the Dixence River at the head of the Val d'Hérens in the canton of Valais in Switzerland. At 285 m (935 ft) high, it is the tallest gravity dam in the world and is part of the Cleuson-Dixence Complex. With the primary purpose of hydroelectric power generation, the dam fuels four power stations, totaling the installed capacity to 2,069 MW, generating approximately 2,000 GWh annually, enough to power 400,000 Swiss households.
The dam withholds Lac des Dix (Lake Dix), its reservoir. The reservoir receives its water from four different pumping stations; the Z’Mutt, Stafel, Ferpècle and Arolla. At peak capacity, it contains approximately 400,000,000 m³ (1.4×10¹⁰ cu ft) of water, with depths reaching up to 284 m (932 ft). Construction on the dam began in 1950 and was completed in 1964, before officially commissioning in 1965.