Cool pix: Electricity towers around the world

As the UK launches a competition to find a new design for electricity pylons, also known as transmission towers, we thought we’d explore what existing pylons around the world look like. Here are some of the more notable ones that can be found across the globe:

Australia

These towers (right) carry electricity from the Channel Island power station near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. Aussies call the transmission tower an “ironman.”

Canada

This high-voltage direct current tower (pictured at left) stands near the Dorsey Converter Station near Rosser in Manitoba, Canada.

China

The pylons used in the power line crossing over the Yangtze River in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, China (at right and at top), are the tallest electricity towers in the world. Erected in 2004, the pylons are 346.5 metres (1,137 feet) high, making them taller than the Eiffel Tower (324 metres, or 1,063 feet). Each one weighs 4,192 tonnes and features an elevator running up its centre, with a spiral staircase on the outside of the elevator shaft.

Egypt

Built in 1998, the Suez Canal power line crossing towers in Suez, Egypt (left), stand 221 metres (725 feet) tall. While the 600-metre (1,968 feet) span of the crossing wouldn’t normally require pylons of this height, the towers were built tall enough to ensure a 152-metre (499 feet) clearance over the canal for unimpeded shipping.

Germany
Built in the 1970s, Germany’s Elbe Crossing 2 (right) features electricity pylons that stand 227 metres (745 feet) tall. The height was designed to allow a 75-metre (246 feet) clearance over the Elbe River so ships can pass back and forth from the deep-water port in Hamburg. The tallest pylons in Europe, the Elbe Crossing 2 towers are also the sixth highest in the world.

Japan

The Chusi power line crossing in Japan (left) was built in 1962 between Takehara and the island of Ōkunoshima. The two 226-meter-high (741 feet) pylons are the tallest in Japan.

Russia

The Shukhov electricity tower (right) on Russia’s Oka River is the only electricity pylon in the world with a hyperboloid design. Designed in the early 20th Century by Russian engineer and scientist Vladimir Shukhov, the 128-metre (420 feet) pylon was originally one of two in the river crossing system. The crossing was decommissioned in 1989 and one of the towers was illegally destroyed (reportedly for its steel) in 2005.

Spain

Erected in the late 1950s, the pylons of Cádiz in Spain (left) stand an average of 158 metres (518 feet) high. While not hyperboloid pylons like those designed by Russia Shukhov, they are structurally similar. The design made it possible to improve the electricity transmission system at a time when Spain had limited access to steel carriers because of restrictions placed on the regime of then-Head of State Francisco Franco.

UK

The Thames crossing in Kent features the tallest electricity pylons in the UK (at right). Erected in 1965, towers stand 190 metres (620 feet) tall, enabling the power lines to cross the Thames at a span of 1,372 metres (4,501 feet) while maintaining a clearance of 76 metres (249 feet).

Venezuela

The three pylons (at right) enabling power lines to cross the Orinoco River in Venezuela each stands 240 metres (787 feet) tall. Until construction is completed on the Costanera Center in Chile, expected in 2012, the pylons are the tallest manmade structures in South America.