Sabbione Dam, Italy

The Sabbione dam integrates the Morasco hydroelectric plant and, with 26,000,000 m³ of capacity, forms the largest artificial reservoir in the Ossola and Piedmont region, in second place in the entire Alpine arc after the Place Moulin in Aosta Valley. The water from the lake of the same name is used in the Morasco hydroelectric power plant, where two turbine/alternator groups produce a net power of 45.6 MW.

The project, like other complementary ones in the area, had as its main aim that of annually regulating the energy that can be produced by the Toce plant system with the reservoir at the highest altitude in the river basin.

The main work consists of a lightened gravity dam with rectilinear planimetric steel, 64 m high and 279 m wide, located at the foot of the Sabbione glacier, which will remain partially submerged. Its construction required the use of 140,000 m³ of concrete and 1200 men.

The dam was inaugurated in 1953. During the works, director Ermanno Olmi shot his first film, a short film lasting approximately 10 minutes entitled The Glacier Dam.