The world’s largest hydropower station has come online in China. The 289-metre (948 feet) high Baihetan Hydropower Station in southwest China, second in the world only to the country’s Three Gorges Dam in terms of power generation, began partial operation.
Baihetan was built with a total installed capacity of 16,000 megawatts, which means it will eventually be able to generate enough electricity each day once to meet the power needs of 500,000 people for an entire year. This is a significant step of the country towards carbon neutrality.
The dam spans a deep, narrow gorge on the upper section of the Yangtze, China’s longest river, on the earthquake-prone border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.
The Chinese President Xi Jinping in his congratulatory message on the inauguration of this significant project said that he hoped the plant would be able to “make greater contributions toward achieving the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,”
China is also planning to construct another mega-dam in Tibet’s Medog County which when constructed will surpass the Three Gorges Dam in size and will become one of the largest dams in the worlds. This is part of China’s pledge to attain carbon neutrality by 2060.
