China’s electrical energy use during the last 30 years is a hockey-stick curve, climbing steeply because the nation industrialized, constructed dozens of mega-cities, and have become the world’s manufacturing middle. Although China’s financial system has slowed lately, electrical energy demand is barely climbing. Given the nation has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, they’re going to want rather more renewable energy than they presently have.
To assist them obtain that purpose, the federal government just lately introduced plans to construct the largest hydropower dam on this planet.
Medog Hydropower Station, as it is going to be known as, will blow different hydropower dams out of the water (pun meant), with an estimated annual technology capability triple that of the world’s largest current dam (which, maybe unsurprisingly, can also be in China). The 60-gigawatt venture will be capable to generate as much as 300,000 gigawatt-hours (or 300 terawatt-hours) of electrical energy per 12 months. That’s equal to Greece’s annual power consumption.
The dam will probably be constructed on a river in Tibet known as the Yarlung Tsangpo, with building carried out by the government-owned Energy Building Company of China. It is not going to solely be one in all China’s largest infrastructure tasks ever, it is going to be some of the costly infrastructure tasks ever, with an estimated value of a trillion yuan or $136 billion (sure, billion with a “b”).
Maybe unsurprisingly, China is already residence to the world’s largest current hydropower dam: Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River stands 594 toes tall (Arizona’s Hoover Dam is taller, however Three Gorges is wider) and has a producing capability of 22.5 gigawatts. By comparability, the largest hydropower dam within the US is the Grand Coulee in Washington state, and it has a producing capability of 6.8 gigawatts. China is the world chief in hydropower deployment, accounting for virtually a 3rd of worldwide hydropower capability. A lot of these dams are on the Yangtze (a few of them constructed by robots!) and a few are on the identical river the place the Medog venture will probably be constructed.
The Yarlung Tsangpo river begins in western Tibet, flowing east after which south, the place it merges with India’s Brahmaputra then flows south via Bangladesh and into the Bay of Bengal. It’s the highest river on this planet, and a 31-mile (50-kilometer) part within the South Tibet Valley drops by a pointy 6,561 toes (2,000 meters); there’s a great deal of untapped potential for all that transferring water to show some generators on its approach down.
However the venture shouldn’t be with out its challenges, each engineering and political.
Environmental teams say the dam will disrupt ecosystems on the biodiverse Tibetan Plateau. Tibetan rights teams see the venture as a primary instance of China exploiting Tibet’s pure assets whereas harming native communities. The dam’s building would require folks to be relocated, although probably not as many as Three Gorges, which uprooted and moved 1.4 million folks. The Medog dam will probably be larger, nevertheless it’s in a extra sparsely populated space.
India and Bangladesh have each expressed considerations concerning the dam, because it might alter the movement of the river downstream the place it runs via these nations. There are additionally considerations concerning the space’s geological stability, because it sits on the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates and is taken into account tectonically lively. An earthquake might destroy the dam and trigger catastrophic flooding. Actually, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake killed 126 folks and broken 4 reservoirs simply final week.
Nevertheless, Medog gained’t be a standard dam within the type of one large wall constructed to carry water behind it, like Three Gorges or the Hoover Dam. As a substitute, 4 12.4-mile (20-kilometer) tunnels will probably be blasted and excavated via a mountain known as Namcha Barwa to divert the river. The water flowing via these tunnels will flip generators connected to turbines earlier than operating again into the Yarlung Tsangpo.
The Chinese language authorities says the Medog venture will assist it obtain the nation’s carbon neutrality targets. In 2023, coal was nonetheless China’s principal supply of electrical energy technology by a protracted shot, supplying 61 p.c of the nation’s electrical energy. Hydropower was a distant second at 13 p.c, adopted by wind, photo voltaic, nuclear, and gasoline, in that order.
Building is slated to begin in 2029, and if all goes as deliberate—which might be spectacular for a venture of this scale—it’s going to take 4 years to finish, with the dam starting business operation in 2033.
