Darbandikhan Dam is a 248 MW hydro power station in As Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. It is operated by Iraq Ministry of Water Resources. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 248,283 homes (estimated). It ranks #23 of 28 Iraq power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1961, it is around 65 years old — an older, legacy facility. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, hydro supplies about 1.3% of Iraq's electricity; the national grid averages 683 gCO₂/kWh (1.6% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1008717.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Iraq Ministry of Water Resources. All plants by this company →
This hydro plant converts the energy of falling or flowing water through hydro turbines. It sits in a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 35.1°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 46% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 31/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
The #4 largest hydro power plant of 8 in Iraq by capacity.
Iraq has 8 hydro power plants in this dataset, together about 2,574 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 35.1129, 45.7053 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
