China turns on world’s first giant hydropower turbines
- Two of the huge Baihetan station’s 16 one-gigawatt generators have started full operation after a three-day trial
- President Xi Jinping says the achievement is a breakthrough for the country’s high-end equipment manufacturing
According to state broadcaster CCTV, Baihetan began generating electricity after a three-day trial. When completed it will house 16 generators providing a total capacity of 16 gigawatts.
Baihetan, on the border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, will be the second largest hydropower station in the world – after the Three Gorges Dam – when all generators are up and running in July next year. The 220 billion yuan (US$34 billion) project is being built by the China Three Gorges Corporation.
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It will be able to produce more than 62 terawatt-hours of electricity a year and help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 52 million tonnes when it is in full operation, according to CCTV. Power generated by Baihetan will be sent to affluent provinces in the Yangtze River Delta, including Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
President Xi Jinping sent his congratulations on Monday, soon after the generators were in full operation. “Baihetan hydropower station … is the world’s biggest and technically more difficult hydropower project that is now under construction,” he said, according to CCTV.
“It represents a major breakthrough in China’s high-end equipment manufacturing with its one-gigawatt generating units, which are the world’s first.”
The hydropower project is also the world’s largest arch dam, built in four years despite engineering challenges that included a fragile geology, remote location and the need for extensive excavation work. About 100,000 residents were relocated to make way for the project.