Żar is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

in the mountain range of

Little Beskids The Little Beskids (; ) is one of the Beskids mountain ranges in the Western Beskids ranges of the Outer Western Carpathians in southeastern Poland. Within the range is the protected area known as Little Beskids Landscape Park. Its highest mount ...

in southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, 761 m above the

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. Below the mountain is an artificial lake (the Międzybrodzkie lake) that was created by damming the

Soła river The Soła () is a river in southern Poland, a right tributary of the Vistula. The Soła originates in the Western Beskids mountain range near the border with Slovakia. It is made up of the confluence of several small creeks in the Rajcza municipa ...

. The elevation of the lake is above sea level.

Zar power plant

pumped-storage hydroelectricity Pumped-storage hydroelectricity (PSH), or pumped hydroelectric energy storage (PHES), is a type of hydroelectric energy storage used by electric power systems for load balancing (electrical power), load balancing. A PSH system stores energy i ...

power plant is located on the top of this mountain. The mountaintop reservoir is long, up to wide, and deep. It can contain of water. The elevation of the reservoir is about above sea level. The power plant was completed in 1979. The pumping time is about 5.5 hours, the power-generation time is about 4 h. The efficiency of the pumping-generation cycle is about 75%. The plant is opened to visitors.

Notes

Mountains of Poland Żywiec County {{Poland-geo-stub