China has approved plans to build the world’s biggest dam set to produce three times as much power as the current record-holder.
The Chinese government plans to spend 1trillion yuan (£109billion) building the new massive dam over the Yarlung Tsangpo River, located in the Tibet autonomous region.
The current largest hydropower project in the world, the Three Gorges Dam which is also in China, supplies five million households with power every month. It was completed in 2008 and started supplying power to homes in 2012.
But when the Yarlung Tsangpo dam is up and running it’s hoped it will generate nearly 300billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of hydropower, which would meet the energy needs of 300million people every year.
It’s thought China is turning away from fossil fuels in an effort to meet net zero emissions by 2060, with a number of wind and solar projects being given the green light in recent months.
There is also a push for more carbon-free energy to be produced by nuclear power plants.
The Yarlung Tsangpo is Tibet’s longest river and is considered to be sacred – but to harness its energy, China will have to drill tunnels between 2.5-12.5miles (4-20km) long through the Namcha Barwa mountain, diverting half of the river’s flow.
The river is home to the planet’s deepest canyon, with a vertical difference of 7,667metres (25,154ft).
The sheer size of the dam makes it one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects the world has ever seen – but Interesting Engineering notes the location of the Yarlung Tsangpo dam is right on the boundary of a tectonic plate, making it prone to earthquakes.
It is however also located in one of the rainiest parts of mainland China.
A starting date for construction and potential opening date have not yet been confirmed.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
