Zaovine Lake - Tara Mountain
Zaovine Lake (Zaovinsko jezero) is an artificial lake located on the Tara Mountain in western Serbia. It was created between 1975 and 1983 as a reservoir for the Bajina Bašta II reversible hydro power plant.
Zaovine Lake lies at an altitude of 892 meters and the max depth of it is 110 meters, but the depth varies a lot as you can see on the shore lines.
In case of low water level in the Drina River, the lake is emptied to run the hydroelectric plant turbines. When there is excess water and flooding, water is pumped vertically into Zaovine Lake.
At the moment the lake was at a pretty good height, but in 2019 there were some questionable decisions made, there was money to be made by selling electricity and the lake was pumped out to a record low. And that caused some serious landslides.
I didn't take the photo of a house we were staying at from the side, but you could clearly see that it moved a bit and was on an angle. And they were the lucky ones.
The place where we were staying, taken from the view point on the opposite side of the lake.
The whole region of Tara mountain is a National park and it is still not overcrowded like some more "famous" mountains (Kopaonik, Zlatibor).
There is a good amount of hiking trails and most of them are going through the forest so it could be pretty pleasant even in hot summer days.
We had a mixed weather so after one abandoned hike we decided to stick close to the house. Not that it was bad :)
And just siting on the porch of the house was an experience
On the way down from the mountain to Bajina Bašta there are few stops where you get a beautiful view of Drina river.
There were some nice views on the road home too
Amazing views! I've never seen fishing hatcheries on the lake before tho. Interesting. Damn totally should put Slovakia on my to-go list
Slovakia does have some cool places, but i would say put Serbia on the list :D And if you like mountains go south, north is flat as it could be.
But it easy to mix up as i do live in the most Slovakian place on earth, located in Serbia :D
Sometimes I wonder how artificial lakes are made. Are they made by humans or how?
The pictures look very beautiful though
it is weird that i didn't manage to find more photos as it was not that long ago, one i found i assume most seen in it is under water.
There was a whole village that was moved out because it was about to be flooded.
Most artificial lakes used for electricity are made by making a dam on a river. so you raise the water level of the river and slow the water down and you get a lake.
My understanding is that this is a bit specific because it was made by building underground pipes that are connected with lake/river down the mountain. So the water was pumped up the mountain by pipes with diameter of 5 meters and i think over 10 kilometers long.
I just watched an old documentary of how this works and how it was built and i am pretty sure my country would not be able to build this today 😂
The scenery of such places is very beautiful and I like it very much and I wish to travel all over the world and see such beautiful things with my own eyes.
The environment and views of Tara Mountain are very beautiful. It is more beautiful because of the artificial lake that is next to it. Are they producing electricity in the lake, but how?
it is an interesting concept. because you can't store electricity in big quantities and often you have excess electricity. You use that excess electricity to store water to make more electricity later.
A reversible hydropower plant, also called a pumped-storage hydroelectric plant, is essentially a giant battery that uses water instead of chemicals. Here's how it works:
Two reservoirs:
Upper reservoir: This acts like a high shelf holding a lot of water.
Lower reservoir: This sits at a lower elevation and stores less water.
Two operational modes:
Generating electricity (Turbine mode):
When there's high demand for electricity (like during peak hours), water is released from the upper reservoir.
The rushing water spins a turbine which is connected to a generator, producing electricity.
The used water then flows into the lower reservoir.
Storing energy (Pumping mode):
During off-peak hours, when there's excess electricity generation (often from renewable sources like solar or wind), this extra energy is used.
The electricity powers large pumps that lift water from the lower reservoir back up to the upper reservoir.
This essentially stores the excess energy as potential energy in the form of the elevated water.
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