Lac de Villefranche-de-Panat () is a
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
in
Aveyron
Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitants o ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. At an elevation of 727 m, its surface area is 1.92 km².
It lies in the
communes
An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...
of
Villefranche-de-Panat
Villefranche-de-Panat (; oc, Vilafranca de Panat ) is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Aveyron department
The following is a list of the 285 communes of the Aveyron departme ...
and
Alrance.
Description
The Lac de Villefranche-de-Panat is part of an electricity generating system where waters falling on the granite plateau of Lévézou that had drained unhindered into the
Viaur
The Viaur () is a river in south-western France. It is a left tributary of the Aveyron. Its source is in the southern Massif Central, north of Millau. It flows generally west through the following departments and towns:
* Aveyron: Pont-de-Sala ...
and the
Tarn river were captured and used by the power stations at
Alrance and
Le Pouget.
![Tarn-Viaur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Tarn-Viaur.svg)
Waters from the Vioulou fell, and waters from the Vaur were pumped into the reservoir at the
Lac de Paraloup whence they passed through a 10.8 km steel lined tunnel to the Alrance power station and into the lake. Waters from three streams that fell directly into the Tarn at Le Truel, are pumped directly into the lake. From this lake tunnels were dug to the
Lac de Saint-Amans
Lac de Saint-Amans is an reservoir, artificial lake in Le Truel, Aveyron, France close to Villefranche-de-Panat, and 500m above the Tarn (river), Tarn. At an elevation of 727 m, it has surface area of 0.11 km². It is captured by the Barrage d ...
where the waters drop 461m vertically to the power station at
Le Pouget on the Tarn.
The Dam
This is a classic
gravity type dam of earth lined with concrete.
Statistics
:Height : 43 m
:Volume of the earth and concrete dam : 31 500 m³
:Width at the base : 29 m
:Width at the crest : 2,70 m
:Length of the crest : 332 m
:Volume of water retained : 10,9 hm³
:Evacuation in spate : 48 m³/s
:Évacuation method : an overflow channel
:Discharge : 11 m³/s
:Discharge : 1 butterfly valve
The tunnel leading from Villefranche-de-Panat to the Lac de Saint-Amans is 3.4 m in diameter and 4,690 m long.
History
The Alrance was dammed between 1948 and 1950, which created the lake.
Leisure
The lake is used for boating, swimming, and Hydro ULM (
microlight sea planes)
File:Villefranche Lac 0706.JPG
File:Villefranche Lac 0719.JPG
Villefranche De Panat
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