The construction of Turkey's first and the world's third highest arch dam, the Yusufeli dam and hydropower plant is over 60 percent complete, a Turkish official confirmed Friday.
The dam, located in northeastern city of Artvin, is set to have 2.1 billion cubic meters of water storage capacity and will generate enough electricity to meet 2 percent of Turkey's power needs corresponding to 650,000 people.
The construction by Turkish engineers started in February 2013 and when complete will contribute 450 million Turkish liras per year to the country's economy.
Artvin Governor Omer Doganay told Anadolu Agency that dam will be a double curvature arch type dam with a height of 270 meters.
The world's highest arch dam of this type at 292 meters - is Xiowan in China while a second in Georgia has a slightly higher arch than Yusufeli at 272 meters.
- Dam to meet 2 percent of Turkey's electricity needs
He stated that 588.5 million Turkish liras have been invested in the dam to date, of which over 60 percent is now complete. It is estimated that the dam will pay for itself in six years.
The dam will produce 1.588 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and daily electricity production will be worth 1 million liras.
Doganay announced the dam is planned to be operational by May 19, 2019.
Turkey's electricity generation was 269.8 billion kilowatt-hours at the end of 2016. Around 24.8 percent of this generation, which corresponded to 66.9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity was generated from dam and hydropower plants.
US$1 equals 3.48 Turkish liras, according to Turkey's Central Bank data.
Reporting By Bayram Sarayoğlu
Writing By Nuran Erkul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr
