Nidau-Büren Canal

The Nidau- Buren - channel is a twelve- kilometer long canal between Lake Biel and Buren in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.

In it, the first since the Jura waters correction flows out through the Hagneckkanal of Aarberg into Lake Biel led Aare back to her old bed at Buren. He took over the function of the lower Zihl, which was the natural outflow of Lake Biel before. He has been re- dug by Nidau ​​to port. After that, he is the straightened, widened and deepened Zihl. A large oxbow lake of the river Aare yet was cut off after the old mouth of the Zihl, so that the channel ends only in Buren. This oxbow lake and the channel limit the current nature Häftli.

To regulate the water levels in Lake Biel, Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Morat ( the three interconnected peripheral Jura lakes) and the water level in the river Aare of Buren from downstream is located in Nidau- Buren - channel weir port. It is accompanied by a 12 meters x 25 meters measured ship lock, which is used by the public ships between Biel and Solothurn. In 1995, a hydroelectric power plant with an average production of 25 million kilowatt hours per year was put into operation on the side of Brugg.