The Burqin Shankou Dam () is an

arch dam An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it, known as hydrostatic pressure, presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengtheni ...

Burqin County Burqin County is a county in Xinjiang, China and is under the administration of the Kazakh autonomous area of Altay Prefecture. It has an area of with a population of 70,000. The postcode is 836600. Administrative divisions Burqin County is ...

of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. The Burqin Shankou Dam is constructed in the narrow gorge of the Burqin, a right tributary of the

Irtysh The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob (river), Ob and is also the longest tributary in the world. The river's source lies in the Altai Mountains, Mongolian Altai in Dzungaria (the northern p ...

, in the area where it leaves the

Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The ...

for the Irtysh plain. This is a concrete

94 m tall; the dam (measured along its curved top) is 311.5 m long and 10 m wide at the top, and 27 m wide at the bottom. The dam creates a reservoir with the volume of 0.221 cubic km; the dam's hydroelectric plant will eventually generate 220 Megawatt of power. The construction work started in July 2009. In September 2014 the last of the concrete was poured on the dam and it began to impound its reservoir. The reservoir was filled by 30 April 2015 and the first generator was commissioned on 5 November 2015. This dam creates a reservoir with a flooded area of 3.9 km² and power density of 28.2W/m2. The dam also has a water release structure, a water intake system, a powerhouse, two main transformers and four sets of 220 kV transmission lines. The plant is estimated to run 3,555 hours annually, producing 391 GWh of power, of which 390.2 GWh will be supplied to the Northwest China Power Grid (NWPG). As of Oct 2013, the

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...

satellite view (probably a year or more old) shows the construction site, with a small

coffer dam A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out or drained. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for constru ...

a bit upstream of the point where the permanent dam is being built.

Clean Energy

The Northwest China Power Grid (NWPG) derives the bulk of its power from thermal power plants. The Burqin Shankou Dam will reduce that reliance on fossil-fuels. The dam is estimated to produce an equal amount of electricity that is currently generated by the thermal plants using fossil-fuels. This clean energy generation will reduce 325,442 tonnes of emissions annually.

Water transfer

The Burqin River discharges into the

at location (Burqin Town, the county seat of

) that's downstream of most of water user's on Chinese territory; thus, from China's point of view, its water uselessly flows west, into the neighboring

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Although some water is already taken from the lower course of the Burqin for irrigation use within Burqin County itself (e.g., at ), it is the Burqin Shankou Dam which will allow to use more of the Burqin's water within China. The first stage of the so-called Project for Bringing Western Water to the East (西水东引一期工程) calls for the construction of a canal from the Burqin Shankou Reservoir to the Project 635 Reservoir on the Irtysh which is located over 100 km upstream from Burqin Town, and which is the source of water for the Irtysh–Karamay–Ürümqi Canal.引额济克(乌)工程: 635工程
(Bringing Irtysh Water to Help Karamay (Ürümqi) Project (Project 635))

Notes

{{reflist Dams in China RBurqin Hydroelectric power stations in Xinjiang Arch dams Altay Prefecture Buildings and structures in Xinjiang Dams completed in 2014 2014 establishments in China Energy infrastructure completed in 2015

Clean Energy

Water transfer

See also

Notes