Run-of-river plant · Rhine
Birsfelden power station
Completed in 1954 on the Rhine just below Basel: a run-of-river dam you can cross on foot or by bike, with two navigation locks beside it.
The plant dams the Rhine at kilometre 163.83, just below Basel, straddling two communes and two cantons: Birsfelden in Basel-Landschaft, Basel in Basel-Stadt. It is the twelfth structure on the High Rhine, the reach that runs from Lake Constance to Basel. The machine hall stretches along the bank under a sawtooth roof, closed by tall glazed bays framed by V-shaped struts; beside it, each pier of the weir carries a dark green housing pierced by two round openings.
The works were completed in 1954. Four Kaplan turbines run under a 12-metre head for an output of about 100 MW; between 2006 and 2015 the average annual production stood at 570 GWh. But the river here is not only a store of energy: it is a shipping route, and the installation acknowledges that. Two locks, 180 and 190 metres long and 12 metres wide, lift vessels past the drop and open the way to the port of Birsfelden.
What sets Birsfelden apart is the civic use made of it. The dam and the locks carry a path for pedestrians and cyclists, the Holzapfelweg, linking Birsfelden to Kleinbasel: a river crossing won from an industrial structure. Between dam and locks, the power station island — the Kraftwerkinsel — serves as an open space under the name Birsköpfli.
Why this place is remarkable
A dam is rarely something you walk across. The one at Birsfelden, completed in 1954, carries a path for pedestrians and cyclists that takes you from one canton to the other, between Birsfelden and Kleinbasel, above four Kaplan turbines and a 12-metre head. The Rhine is both motive power here — an average of 570 GWh a year between 2006 and 2015 — and a trade route: vessels climb the drop through two locks of 180 and 190 metres.
History and origin
Run-of-river means without a reservoir: the works store almost nothing, they raise the water level by 12 metres and turbine what the river brings. That does not make them solitary. This is the twelfth dam on the High Rhine, the stretch of the river between Lake Constance and Basel, and it holds its downstream end, at kilometre 163.83.
What to do and see
- Cross the Rhine on the Holzapfelweg, the walking and cycling path carried by the dam and the locks, between Birsfelden and Kleinbasel.
- Watch the dam's piers and their dark green cabins pierced by two round openings.
- Spot the two locks, 180 and 190 metres long, that let boats bound for the port of Birsfelden clear the drop.
- Stop on the power plant island, the Kraftwerkinsel, laid out as a recreation area under the name Birsköpfli.
Coming with family: what to know
- The dam carries a walking and cycling path laid out on the structure itself; it is an active industrial site spanning two cantons.
As a couple
- Watch the machine hall and its sawtooth roof pierced with large V-shaped glass panels, along the bank.
- Picture the four Kaplan turbines working under a 12-metre drop since the structure's completion in 1954.
- Walk to the twelfth dam on the High Rhine, at the downstream end of the stretch between Lake Constance and Basel.
Location
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