The Hálslón Reservoir () is a storage

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

in Eastern

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

on the

Jökulsá á Dal Jökulsá á Dal, (, ) also called Jökulsá á Brú or Jökla, is a river in the northeast of Iceland. Of its original length of 150 km (making it the longest river in Iceland's Eastern Region), 25 km are now part of the artificial ...

River. The reservoir stores water for use in

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

production with the

Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant ( ), officially called Fljótsdalur Power Station ( ) is a hydroelectric power plant in Fljótsdalshérað municipality in eastern Iceland, designed to produce annually for Alcoa's Fjarðaál Aluminium smelting, alu ...

. The reservoir was formed by three different

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

-faced, rock-filled

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 ...

s: the Kárahnjúkastífla Dam, the Desjarárstífla Dam and the Sauðárdalsstífla Dam .

Dams

The Kárahnjúkastífla Dam is 193m tall, 730m long and straddles the river. It is made of 8.5 million cubic meters of material, making it the largest dam of its type in Europe. Construction on the dam began in April 2003 and was completed in November 2006. The Kárahnjúkastífla Dam does not create the reservoir alone, as the dam is higher in elevation than the two valleys that flank the river valley. To create the desired level, auxiliary or saddle dams were built. The 60m tall and 1,000m long Desjarárstífla Dam is adjacent and to the east of the Kárahnjúkastífla Dam. The Sauðárdalsstífla Dam is 4 km to the southwest, 25m tall and 1,100m long. Both auxiliary dams were built between April 2004 and October 2006. The reservoir began to fill in September 2006.Key Figures of the Kárahnjúkar Hydroelectric Project
The Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project Overview
Water used for hydroelectricity production in the reservoir is discharged in the Jökulsá í Fljótsdal river to the northeast.

Conservation

In January 2005, the

Icelandic parliament The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what lat ...

voted to give a large area around the dam park status, thereby protecting it. The area covers one-tenth of Iceland's surface area.Giant dam and smelter boost economy and raise tensions in Iceland
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References

External links

Hálslón Reservoir and DamsKárahnjúkar HEP - Landsvirkjun - September 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halslon Reservoir Lakes of Iceland