The Alb Reservoir (), or Alb Basin (''Albbecken'') is a

storage reservoir Storage may refer to: Goods Containers * Dry cask storage, for storing high-level radioactive waste * Food storage * Intermodal container, cargo shipping * Storage tank Facilities * Mail storage, storage by mail or delivery service * Self stora ...

in the valley of the River Alb near

St. Blasien St. Blasien (; sometimes spelled in full as Sankt Blasien) is a small town located in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the Southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Ab ...

in the

Southern Black Forest The Southern Black Forest () is the highest part of the Black Forest, an area heavily transformed by ice age glaciation south of a line roughly from Freiburg im Breisgau to Donaueschingen. The term High Black Forest is not quite identical; th ...

in south Germany. It is part of the pumped storage network of the

Schluchseewerk The Schluchseewerk AG is the operator of five pumped storage hydroelectric power stations in the Southern Black Forest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Its head office is in Laufenburg (Baden). The shareholders of the Schluchseewerk a ...

based at Laufenburg and lies between the lake of Schluchsee and the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

near Waldshut. The barrier is a 28-metre-high

gravity dam A gravity dam is a dam constructed from concrete or stone masonry and designed to hold back water by using only the weight of the material and its resistance against the foundation. Gravity dams are designed so that each section of the dam is ...

Geography

The Alb Reservoir lies in the valley of the Alb at about 737 metres above sea level (''

Normalnull ("standard zero") or (short N. N. or NN) is an outdated official vertical datum used in Germany. Elevations using this reference system were to be marked (“meters above standard zero”). has been replaced by (NHN). History In 187 ...

''). The nearest settlement is the town of St. Blasien (760 m ü. NN), whose trading estate in the south reaches the end of the lake. The

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

lies mostly on the territory of the town of St. Blasien; a smaller part of the lake in the west and the entire dam wall lie within the municipality of

Dachsberg Dachsberg is a municipality in the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north ...

. The ''Landesstraße'' 154 road which runs through the Alb valley, the ''Albtalstraße'' or "Alb Valley Road", leaves

Albbruck Albbruck is a municipality of the district of Waldshut in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is on the southwestern border of Germany with Switzerland. History In 1805 during the process of German mediatisation, a restructuring of certain jurisdict ...

on the Rhine and makes its way up the valley towards St. Blasien, running for about 1.4 kilometres along the eastern shore of the reservoir before reaching the town.

Function

The ''Schluchseewerk'' is the company that runs the hydropower stations around the Schluchsee. In their network, the Alb Reservoir and its sister, the Mettma Reservoir in the valley of the Mettma, are one of two side arms linking the Schwarzabruck Reservoir (lower basin for the power station on the upper level (''Oberstufe'') and upper basin for the power station on the middle level (''Mittelstufe'') in the Schwarza valley.

Environment

When the reservoir is cleaned out, the sediments are not taken to rubbish tips, but used to create a bird island.

External links

Schluchseewerk AG
{{Authority control Lakes of the Black Forest 1940s architecture Pumped-storage hydroelectric power stations in Germany Gravity dams Waldshut (district) RAlb Basin Dams in Baden-Württemberg Reservoirs in Baden-Württemberg St. Blasien

Geography

Function

Environment

See also

External links