China’s electrical energy use over the past 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 heart. Although China’s financial system has slowed lately, electrical energy demand is simply climbing. Given the nation has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, they’re going to wish rather more renewable energy than they presently have.
To assist them obtain that objective, the federal government lately introduced plans to construct the most important hydropower dam on the earth.
Medog Hydropower Station, as will probably be referred to as, will blow different hydropower dams out of the water (pun supposed), 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 undertaking will be capable of 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 vitality consumption.
The dam will likely be constructed on a river in Tibet referred to 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 among China’s largest infrastructure initiatives ever, will probably be one of the costly infrastructure initiatives ever, with an estimated price 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 ft tall (Arizona’s Hoover Dam is taller, however Three Gorges is wider) and has a producing capability of 22.5 gigawatts. By comparability, the most important 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 world 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 undertaking will likely 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 by way of Bangladesh and into the Bay of Bengal. It’s the highest river on the earth, and a 31-mile (50-kilometer) part within the South Tibet Valley drops by a pointy 6,561 ft (2,000 meters); there’s a great deal of untapped potential for all that shifting water to show some generators on its method down.
However the undertaking 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 undertaking as a major instance of China exploiting Tibet’s pure assets whereas harming native communities. The dam’s building would require individuals to be relocated, although probably not as many as Three Gorges, which uprooted and moved 1.4 million individuals. The Medog dam will likely be larger, nevertheless it’s in a extra sparsely populated space.
India and Bangladesh have each expressed considerations in regards to the dam, because it might alter the circulation of the river downstream the place it runs by way of these international locations. There are additionally considerations in regards to the space’s geological stability, because it sits on the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates and is taken into account tectonically energetic. An earthquake might destroy the dam and trigger catastrophic flooding. In actual fact, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake killed 126 individuals and broken 4 reservoirs simply final week.
Nevertheless, Medog received’t be a standard dam within the type of one big 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 likely be blasted and excavated by way of a mountain referred to as Namcha Barwa to divert the river. The water flowing by way of these tunnels will flip generators connected to mills earlier than working again into the Yarlung Tsangpo.
The Chinese language authorities says the Medog undertaking will assist it obtain the nation’s carbon neutrality objectives. In 2023, coal was nonetheless China’s essential supply of electrical energy technology by an extended shot, supplying 61 % of the nation’s electrical energy. Hydropower was a distant second at 13 %, adopted by wind, photo voltaic, nuclear, and gasoline, in that order.
Building is slated to start out in 2029, and if all goes as deliberate—which might be spectacular for a undertaking of this scale—it can take 4 years to finish, with the dam starting business operation in 2033.