The Oder Dam (german: Odertalsperre) is a dam in the
Harz mountains
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. It lies above
Bad Lauterberg
Bad Lauterberg is a town in the district of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the southern Harz, approx. 15 km southwest of Braunlage, and 20 km southeast of Osterode am Harz.
Bad Lauterberg is known ''inter alia' ...
in the district of
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
in
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
and impounds the river
Oder
The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows thr ...
. The dam went into service in 1934 after taking 3 years to build. The owner and operator of the Oder Dam is the ''
Harzwasserwerke
The Harzwasserwerke GmbH (; English: Harz Water Works Limited) is a major German water company and dam operator based in Hildesheim, located within the German federal state of Lower Saxony.
Founded in 1928, the Harzwasserwerke were tasked with sup ...
''.
Purposes
The reservoir serves the following purposes:
*
Flood protection
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water levels ...
*
Low water
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ca ...
regulation
*
Power generation
Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stor ...
These functions sometimes create conflicting demands. For flood protection, the reservoir should be as empty as possible; for low water regulation, it is desirable that the reservoir is as full as possible. Accordingly, there are for the water economy an operating plan that is dependent on the time of year and the expected water quantities. e.g. snow meltwaters at the end of winter, droughts in summer.
Dam
The actual barrage is an
embankment dam
An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and ...
made of rubble (crushed stone) with a central
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...
core and a
grout curtain
A grout curtain is a barrier that protects the foundation of a dam from seepage and can be made during initial construction or during repair. Additionally, they can be used to strengthen foundations and contain spills.
Characteristics
A grout curt ...
of
clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
. The concrete wall has joints that follow the shape of the whole dam, without leaking. The design is very similar in many respects to the
Söse Dam
The Söse Dam is a dam in the Lower Saxon part of the Harz mountains near Osterode in the German state of Lower Saxony.
It was the first modern dam and reservoir complex (German: ''Talsperre'') to be built in the Harz and was constructed by th ...
built shortly beforehand.
Pumped storage hydro-electric power station
The reservoir of the dam originally acted as the upper reservoir of the
pumped-storage power station
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing. The method stores energy in the form of gravitational potenti ...
. Immediately below the dam is the lower reservoir with a 7.5 m high earth dam that acted as a stilling basin. The power station is also located at the foot of the dam. It has 2
turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating e ...
s with a combined output of 5.04
MW (possibly as much as 6.2 MW).
The pumped-storage facility has not been used since the 1990s as it was no longer economical. The power station now operates simply as a storage power station with a
Francis turbine
The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency.
The proces ...
.
Tourism
The lake is open to
watersports
Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants.
On the water
* Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races
* Boatin ...
such as
angling
Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techniqu ...
,
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
and
surfing
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...
. There is also a local restaurant and a
campsite
A campsite, also known as a campground or camping pitch, is a place used for overnight stay in an outdoor area. In British English, a ''campsite'' is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using te ...
.
See also
*
List of dams in the Harz
In the Harz mountains, there is a higher than average number of dams with their associated reservoirs. The reason is that the Harz is one of the regions with the heaviest rainfall in Germany and so its water power was utilised very early on. The ...
*
List of reservoirs and dams in Germany
These are dams and reservoirs in Germany.
The German word ''Talsperre'' (literally: valley barrier) may mean dam, but it is often used to include the associated reservoir as well. The reservoirs are often separately given names ending in ''-see ...
*
Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
*
Oderteich
The Oderteich is an historic reservoir about seven kilometres northeast of Sankt Andreasberg in the Upper Harz in central Germany. It was built by miners from St. Andreasberg in the years 1715 to 1722 and, today, is an important component of the ...
Notes
* Peter Franke, Wolfgang Frey: ''Talsperren in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.'' Systemdruck, Berlin 1987,
External links
Oder Dam at en.structurae.de
with link to the current dam data.
{{Authority control
Dams in Lower Saxony
Dams in the Harz
Dams completed in 1933