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Earlier this morning, the People’s Republic of China reached a milestone in the development and construction of it’s ‘Three Gorges’ dam. This superstructure activated the fifteenth of its twenty-six massive generators and is now producing energy for China’s needs, as previously, only power generators on the left side of the dam were operational (those were started in 2005). After an extensive, 72-hour field test, China will now start to bring in the rest of the twenty-six generators and ramp up power production. This marks a winding down for China in the storied development of one of its biggest projects, whose construction, and troubles, started back in 1993 and has cost ¥172.5 billion Yuan Reminbi ($22.5 billion).
It’s troubles have stemmed from environmental groups who say the creation of the huge reservoirs it needs will cause pollution buildup and breed diseases like malaria, the forced relocation of 1.4 million residents now living in a flood zone, and complaints about its high cost. However, the Three Gorges Dam reflects a commitment by the Chinese government to cut its reliance on coal power and move to cleaner sources of energy, such as hydro power. The production of power from Three Gorges will move burden of production away from coal plants in China, which is estimated to help cut the emission of around 100 million tons of various greenhouse gases.
The dam is expected to generate 84.7 TWhs of electricity annually.
Picture courtesy of: BBC News
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the only thing more impressive is if they could damn politicians mouths. We’d have an endless source of energy