The Zaza Dam 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 ...

on the

Zaza River Zaza may refer to: Ethnic group * Zazas, a group of people in eastern Anatolia (southeastern Turkey) * Zaza–Gorani languages, Indo-Iranian languages ** Zaza language, spoken by the Zazas People Given name * Zaza Sor. Aree (born 1993), Thai ...

about southwest of

Sancti Spíritus Sancti Spíritus () is a municipality and capital city of the province of Sancti Spíritus Province, Sancti Spíritus in central Cuba and one of the oldest Cuban European settlements. Sancti Spíritus is the genitive case of Latin language, Lat ...

Sancti Spíritus Province Sancti Spíritus () is one of the provinces of Cuba. Its capital is the identically named Sancti Spíritus. Another major city is Trinidad. Geography The southern coast of the province is flat, but the western portion of Sancti Spíritus provinc ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. The dam was completed in 1972 with the primary purpose of irrigation but it also supports a small

hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

power station. The dam's reservoir,

Zaza Reservoir Zaza Reservoir ( es, Embalse Zaza, La Presa Zaza) is the largest man-made reservoir in Cuba. It is located in the Sancti Spíritus Province in central Cuba, south-east of the city of Sancti-Spíritus and north-west of La Sierpe. It has a water ...

, has a storage capacity of , making it the largest in the country. Beginning in the 1990s, the Chinese government helped plan and install the hydroelectric power station. It contains two 1.35 MW

Kaplan turbine The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to ach ...

-generators. The first was commissioned in October 2008, the second in February 2009.

References

{{stack, {{Portal, Cuba, Water, Renewable energy Dams in Cuba Hydroelectric power stations in Cuba Dams completed in 1972 Energy infrastructure completed in 2009 Buildings and structures in Sancti Spíritus 1972 establishments in Cuba