The  Alqueva Dam  is a dam in Portuguese arch, located in the Guadiana river, in the Alentejo region. Alqueva is the largest dam in Portugal and Europe, situated on the Guadiana river in the interior Alentejo, near the Spanish border.

 

It has 250 square kilometers in surface, 83 kilometers in length and 1160 kilometers in perimeter, being considered the largest artificial lake in Europe.

The dam was built with the purpose of storing irrigation water for the entire Alentejo area and also for the production of electricity, as well as other complementary activities.

Several infrastructures of the Alqueva Global System are already built and many others at an advanced stage of design.

It has a height of 96 m above the foundation and a crowning length of 458 m . The installed capacity of electricity production   started to be 260 MW, having been boosted to expand the capacity of the project to 520 megawatts (MW) (since 15/10/2012), with two reversible generator sets , which should produce 381 gigawatt hours (GWh) annually.

The reservoir reaches a maximum of 250 km², making it the largest artificial lake in Western Europe.

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