The Aldeadávila dam, protagonist of the Haute Couture fashion show by designer Fely Campo at MBFW

The Aldeadávila dam, owned by Iberdrola, has been chosen by the Salamanca designer Fely Campo as the setting for her debut at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week -MBFW-, held these days in Madrid, and has been seen in all its splendour in the presentation of her luxury prêt-à-porter collection that proposes a journey, through a counterpoint of sensations, when admiring the breath-taking beauty of the balconies of the Arribes.

In love with her homeland, Salamanca, she wanted to vindicate this hydroelectric infrastructure in such an important and nationally and internationally recognised medium as the Madrid catwalk, projecting images of this installation during the fashion show, located in the impressive canyon of the lower section of the Douro River in the Arribes del Douro Natural Park, becoming the centre of the inspiration that the designer has chosen for this collection.

On its way through the province of Salamanca, with more than half a century behind it, Aldeadávila is 140 metres high by 250 metres wide and is capable of impounding 115 cubic hectometres in an area of 368 hectares, equivalent to almost 97 stadiums such as the Bernabéu.

The sequences filmed in this place have a relevant deployment of state-of-the-art technology, including drones and high-speed cameras for the recording of the most beautiful scenes.

Diafonia, luxury ready-to-wear collection

Diafonía, as the designer from Salamanca has named her luxury ready-to-wear collection, builds a feminine wardrobe that reflects the harshness and delicacy of an inspiring landscape, through the contrast of aesthetics. In short, a vertiginous way of approaching the focus of all of Fely Campo's inspiration: the woman, her character, her contradictions, her contrasts and her way of feeling the present moment; accompanied by an electromagnetic sound to travel the tireless path towards the quest for beauty.

"Anyone who has ever looked out over the breath-taking beauty of the Arribes balconies will have felt the wild caress and the forceful delicacy of the sound of this landscape," Campo says with emotion.
Mixed feelings are harmonised in looks that expose the contrast of textures. The most intimate scenes, the search for subtle and sensitive beauty sounds through fine satins, transparencies, vaporous fabrics and delicate reflections that make their way over the strength of a more abrupt landscape, composed of warm garments with a firm and tenacious touch like wool.

The more sober lines of the collection are made up of tailored and oversized volumes, boldly taking us to the magnitude of stone textures. Garments that behave like armour, under which the coupling of a crosstalk reveals a second, more intimate line, with a sensual and delicate lingerie aesthetic. A counterpoint of aesthetics that offers a versatile and timeless vision of fashion.

Aldeadávila, a film setting

This hydroelectric installation continues to amaze by its grandeur and the place where it was built, in a rugged area of granite rocks whose beauty attracts hundreds of visitors every year and which has also served as the main setting for such well-known film productions as the latest Terminator saga, Doctor Zhivago, winner of five Oscars and as many Golden Globes, and Antonio Mercero's Spanish film La Cabina (The Cabin).

In 2016, it became the protagonist of the campaign that the Japanese company Fujitsu launched under the slogan The world is your workplace /El mundo es tu oficina. It focused its minute-long campaign on highlighting the freedom of working with its new laptop model, showing how four employees jumped from their office to the most striking natural landscapes in Spain, which they could access through the machine.

The Aldeadávila power plant is one of the largest generators of electricity in Spain, as its output accounts for more than 10% of the country's average hydroelectric generation, enough to supply 250,000 homes. It also saves the annual emission of 1.3 million tonnes of CO2. The main structure of this hydroelectric plant is underground: it has 12 kilometres of tunnels 12 metres wide by 8 metres high.

From the Douro Waterfalls to global energy leadership

Iberdrola's commitment to Castilla y León is part of the company's deep ties with this region, where it was founded more than 115 years ago and from where it has been promoting the energy transition towards renewable, clean and competitive energies that promote the development of a sustainable and environmentally and socio-economically responsible society.

Iberdrola's commitment to clean energies began precisely with the promotion of the Douro Waterfalls and this commitment, more than a century later, has materialised by becoming a global energy leader, the leading wind power producer and one of the largest electricity companies in the world in terms of stock market capitalisation.

In Castilla y León, Iberdrola is a leader in the development of these energies, with the management of more than 5,200 MW of renewable energy - 3,500 MW of hydroelectric - which consolidates the region as the autonomous community with the "greenest" megawatts installed by the company in Spain.

One of the most important milestones in Iberdrola's history

The mighty Douro River, despite being a means of transport for long periods of time, concealed an unimaginable treasure in the form of energy in its lower section. It was the engineer José Orbegozo who, after studying the river and glimpsing the entire canyon, realised the enormous possibilities of the international section and the magnitude of the project.

This consisted of building powerful waterfalls to take advantage of the fantastic cascade of water and creating large reservoirs on the Esla and Tormes rivers. These reservoirs would regulate the flow and guarantee the production of the powerful power stations that would be installed downstream, either on the national or international section of the Douro, which, on the border between Spain and Portugal, and along its 160-kilometre course, had a gradient of 400 metres.

The creation of the Aldeadávila dam represents one of the most important milestones in Iberdrola's more than century-long history in Spain, a history that is the sum of the efforts of several generations who have ably taken advantage, at all times, of the opportunities of the electricity market, with the ultimate goal of responding to the demands of industrial development and the well-being of society.