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Three Gorges Dam
Learn about the world's largest dam and hydro electric project
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China is the World's largest dam, largest Hydro-electric (1) project, and one of the largest construction projects ever. When completed this power station will generate an incredible 18.2GW of electricity from its 26 hydro turbines - equivalent to the output from 18 typical coal power stations (40 million tons of coal), or the power used by four cities the size of Los Angeles. In units of electricity that is a total of 85 billion kWh per year (worth around £4bn per year at UK retail prices). By 2006 approximately 3% of China's vast power needs will be serviced by the hydropower plant reducing carbon monoxide emissions by around 10,000 tons per year in a country where 80% of power is currently generated by burning coal. China are also the world's second largest consumer of oil, so they are looking to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
The dam has created an artificial reservoir 660km long which will eventually cause the flooding of 632 square kilometers of land. This has displaced well over million people and destroyed over 1,000 towns and villages. Pictured above is an image of the Three Gorges region before the construction of the dam. The total cost of the project is claimed to be under $25 billion, however real costs are believed to be as high as $100 billion.
The dam itself is over 1.4 miles long and 185 miles high and is constructed from concrete.
Although hydropower is seen by most to be good for the environment thanks to its ability to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, there are now concerns that hydro electricity generation contributes to global warming (2), and may in many cases lead to more climate change than coal power stations.
Web Link References
(1) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Introduction-to-Hydro-Electric-Power.htm(2) http://www.reuk.co.uk/Hydro-Contributes-to-Global-Warming.htm
Article from REUK.co.uk:
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Three-Gorges-Dam.htm
Published: 3rd January 2007
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