3. Austria’s Kölnbrein Dam
Where: Austria
Completed Cost: $154 Million
Year Completed: 1979
At 660 feet high, the Kölnbrein arch dam in the Hohe Tauern range became the tallest dam in Austria when it was completed in 1979. The building, despite its bewildering look, is useful for purposes other than aesthetics; its reservoirs serve as the main storage for a three-stage pump-storage power system that includes nine dams, four hydroelectric power plants, numerous penstocks, and pipelines.
Austria’s Kölnbrein Dam ©Wikimedia Commons/Verbund
This massive building, which is owned by Verbund Power Company, has an installed group capacity of 1,028.5 MW and produces 1,216 gigawatt-hours (4,380 TJ) of power annually.
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