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The Plant
The Pozzillo Dam
The dam is located in the municipality of Regalbuto (in the province of Enna) and is part of the Salso Simeto water system in central Sicily.
The system was built in the 1950s, using water from the Simeto River, which is blocked by the Ancipa Dam, and the Salso River, which is blocked by the Pozzillo Dam.
The dam has a maximum height of 60 meters, a width of 320 meters and a catchment area of 580 square kilometers: the reservoir, with a total capacity of 120 million cubic meters of water, is the largest artificial reservoir in Sicily. The plant is owned by Sicily’s regional government and is managed by Enel Green Power.
Operational capacity
120 million cubic meters of water
Power*
70 MW
Energy production*
About 100 GWh per year
Energy requirement*
25,000 households per year
Irrigation needs
60,000 hectares (mainly citrus groves on the Plain of Catania)
CO2 emissions avoided*
65,000 tons per year
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Timeline
Milestone
Impact on local communities
Water from the reservoir is mainly used to irrigate about 60,000 hectares of citrus groves on the Catania Plain. But it also enables, thanks to its passage through the Regalbuto, Contrasto, Paternò and Barca hydroelectric power plants, the production of about 100 GWh of hydroelectric power generation.
A forest area consisting mainly of eucalyptus trees has developed around the lake, and a number of sports facilities have sprung up, particularly for rowing.
The PNRR-funded renovation work
Due to its geological characteristics and its use for agricultural purposes, the transport of solid materials is common in the Salso River catchment area. Currently, there are about 30 million cubic meters of sediment in the reservoir, which has obstructed the bottom outlet of the dam. For this reason, in 2006 the Directorate of Dams at the Ministry of Infrastructure ordered the total capacity of the reservoir to be halved: of the 120 million cubic meters of available volume, only 60 million can be used.
In 2018, an agreement with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sicily’s regional government entrusted Enel Green Power with the task of identifying and designing the best possible technical solution to restore the functionality of the bottom outlet. The work, which is in progress, is fully financed with PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan): €40 million will come from the M2C2C4 - I4.1 investment line, in the form of investment in primary water infrastructure for water supply security. About €1 million is earmarked for security.
The project involves the construction of a new bottom drain inlet at a higher elevation than the original one. For this reason, for the first time in the world, series of interlocking steel “O-Piles” will be used in order to build an impermeable barrier. This means that the new bottom drain inlet can be built without emptying the reservoir, thereby preserving water for the irrigation season.
The project was contracted to the company Fondamenta SpA. Work began on February 19, 2024 and will be completed on June 30, 2026.
In terms of the circular economy, the sediment removed from the reservoir will be made available as fertilizer for agricultural uses. The same sediments will be the subject of two projects for testing their reusability. The first, which is funded by the EU and promoted by, among others, CNR (Italy’s national research council) and Catania University, concerns the transformation of sediment into geopolymers for the production of tiles; the second, which is promoted by the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Palermo, will study the properties of the sediment in order to understand what is the best relocation based on the soil’s characteristics.
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