The Shardara Dam (), also known as Chardara Dam, is an earth-fill
embankment dam
An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface ...
on the
Syr Darya River in
Shardara District,
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 ...
. The dam has an associated 100 MW
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
plant named Shardara Hydroelectric Power Station.
History
The dam was constructed between 1964 and 1968 at the time of the
Kazakh SSR
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, KSSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991. Located in northern Centr ...
. Its primary purpose was irrigation.
The dam has been undergoing structural rehabilitation and a power station upgrade is currently in planning. The power station's four 25 MW
Kaplan turbine
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to a ...
-generators are scheduled to be upgraded to 31.5 MW each.
Reservoir
The reservoir created by the dam has a maximum storage capacity of and a surface area of . It provides water to the
Kyzyl-Kum channel for crop irrigation.
See also
*
Farkhad Dam
The Farkhad Dam () (also known as Dam-16) is a hydroelectric and irrigation dam on the Spitamen District, Spitamen in Sughd Province, Tajikistan. It is a part of the Naryn-Syr Darya Cascade. The dam is located on the territory of Tajikistan an ...
– upstream
*
List of reservoirs by surface area
References
External links
*{{commons category inline, Shardara Reservoir
Dams in Kazakhstan
Hydroelectric power stations in Kazakhstan
Earth-filled dams
Dams completed in 1968
Hydroelectric power stations built in the Soviet Union
1968 establishments in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
Energy infrastructure completed in 1968
Dams on the Syr Darya River
Buildings and structures in Turkistan Region