The Burqin Shankou Dam is an arch dam in Burqin County 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, in the area where it leaves the Altai Mountains for the Irtysh plain. This is a concrete arch dam 94 m tall; the dam 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. As of Oct 2013, the Google Maps satellite view shows the construction site, with a small coffer dama bit upstream of the point where the permanent dam is being built.
Clean Energy
The Northwest China Power Grid 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 CO2 emissions annually.
Water transfer
The Burqin River discharges into the Irtysh at location 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. Although some water is already taken from the lower course of the Burqin for irrigation use within Burqin County itself, 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 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.
