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 heart. Although China’s financial system has slowed in recent times, electrical energy demand is barely climbing. Given the nation has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, they’re going to want far more renewable energy than they at the moment 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 meant), with an estimated annual technology capability triple that of the world’s largest present dam (which, maybe unsurprisingly, can be in China). The 60-gigawatt undertaking will have the ability 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 shall 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 considered one of China’s greatest infrastructure initiatives ever, will probably be probably the most 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 dwelling to the world’s largest present 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 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. Lots 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 shall 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 toes (2,000 meters); there’s a great deal of untapped potential for all that shifting water to show some generators on its manner down.
However the undertaking is just not 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 folks to be relocated, although seemingly not as many as Three Gorges, which uprooted and moved 1.4 million folks. The Medog dam shall be larger, however it’s in a extra sparsely populated space.
India and Bangladesh have each expressed considerations in regards to the dam, because it may alter the stream 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 lively. An earthquake may destroy the dam and trigger catastrophic flooding. The truth is, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake killed 126 folks and broken 4 reservoirs simply final week.
Nonetheless, Medog received’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 an alternative, 4 12.4-mile (20-kilometer) tunnels shall 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 hooked up to mills earlier than operating again into the Yarlung Tsangpo.
The Chinese language authorities says the Medog undertaking will assist it obtain the nation’s carbon neutrality targets. In 2023, coal was nonetheless China’s most important 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’ll take 4 years to finish, with the dam starting industrial operation in 2033.
