Grand d’Alsace — Wikipedia

The grand canal d’Alsace is dug parallel to the channeled Rhine, a few hundred meters from it, on the French side, appointed in German Rhine side canal (Rhine’s lateral channel). The length of the channel between Kembs and Vogelgrun is around 50 km . Downstream from Vogelgrun, the canal gives way to four so -called “festoon” adjustments on which are located the locks and hydroelectric power plants of Marckolsheim, Rhinau, Gerstheim and Strasbourg ^{[ first ]} .
The port of Basel has become one of the most important in the Rhine since the creation of the canal. Indeed, the Rhine ( via The canal) is the only direct access route to the North Sea for Switzerland.

Before the Rhine was channeled, floods regularly drowned the neighboring plain. Many pipelines have been undertaken since Antiquity, because the Romans already used it as a river path.

However, it is only at XIX ^{It is} century that major development work would begin. Their purpose was to channel the Rhine. Johann Gottfried Tulla did the first works between 1842 and 1876. The main objective was to contain floods in a single bed. This also allows you to trace a towpath and recover land, usually flooded, for agriculture. For this, the different islands and meanders are deleted, and the river takes a more straight journey. THE minor bed Thus created measures 200 m wide. It contains the river most of the time because its dikes are only overwhelmed during very large floods. THE major bed , whose width varies depending on the floods, is wider and contains the very stronger floods.

These works have an unexpected effect: the river being less winding, its slope and its current increase. Erosion is then accelerated. A few kilometers downstream from Basel, the rocks of the Istein bar are exposed, while in the downstream of the high fonds appear with the accumulation of gravel and deposits. This strong current makes navigation very difficult upstream of Mannheim and the port of Strasbourg will not be almost served between 1864 and 1868 and that of Basel will be in strong decline.

From 1878, several projects of a side channel in the Rhine were offered, but will not often lead for lack of funding. Temporarily the solution chosen to slow down the current is that of Henri Girardon : The principle is to trace meanders by placing ears made of braided plants, in the banks. This solution had already been successfully implemented on the Rhône and other Rivers in Prussia.

After the Versailles Treaty of 1919, under article 358, France obtained the exclusive right to develop the Rhine ^{[ 2 ] , [ 3 ]} . In 1928 began the work of the canal, which was dug in parallel with the Rhine.

The Rhine separates into two parts at the level of a village-nine. A dam with five doors of thirty meters each allows you to regulate the flow in the large canal. By opening more or less, the dam allows part of the Rhine water to borrow the old rhine Rather than the canal. This dam is equipped with a small hydroelectric power station with a power of 8MW ^{[ 4 ]}

Four waterfalls are fitted out on the canal. This is that Kembs, completed in 1932, from Ottmarsheim, commissioned in 1952, Fessenheim in 1956 and Vogelgrun in 1959. The site was completed in 1961.
Each of these falls is the seat of a hydroelectric power station, as well as a double lock, to guarantee the passage of the boats.

The hydroelectric development of the Alsatian Rhine is made up of 10 power plants built between 1932 and 1977, which currently represents 12% of the French production of renewable energy with a power of 1,200mw. The Kembs, Ottmarsheim, Fessenheim and Vogelgrun power plants are installed on the large Alsace canal. The other hydroelectric production sites (upstream of Kembs and downstream of Marckolsheim) are developed on the course of the Rhine ^{[ 4 ]} .

Kembs hydroelectric power station [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

First central on the canal, it was put into service in 1932. It provided a power of 160 MW thanks to 2 Kaplan turbines and 4 propeller turbines installed over a fall of 14.4 m.

Ottmarsheim hydroelectric power station [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

This second power station was put into service in 1952. It provides a power of 160 MW thanks to 4 Kaplan turbines installed on a fall of 15.7 m.

Fessenheim hydroelectric power station [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

This third power plant was put into service in 1956. It provides a power of 180 MW thanks to 4 Kaplan turbines installed over a 15.5 m fall. This power station is directly connected to the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in order to provide it with the necessary electricity in the event of a problem.

Vogelgrun hydroelectric power station [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

The fourth power plant was put into service in 1959. It provides a power of 140mw thanks to 4 Kaplan turbines installed on a 12.3 m fall.

It is the last of the power plants installed on the large Alsace canal.

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  Kembs hydroelectric power station.

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  Vogelgrun hydroelectric power station in the background and the double lock in the first ^is  plan.

The high flow of the canal made an asset for the construction of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, thus avoiding having to build cooling towers ^{[ first ]}

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