a hydroelectric plant on the most controversial site possible

There is not a week in which China does not amaze us with a new mega-construction. The country is immersed in projects such as the Great Green Wall to enclose one of the largest deserts in the world, the largest airport on an artificial island or a dam at 5,000 meters above sea level. The latter is precisely another dam to generate an enormous amount of energy.

And its ambition is to put the Three Gorges in check, producing three times more energy than that colossal structure more than two kilometers long.

green path. This new Chinese megastructure is not a whim, as other types of works may seem. In 2020, the country set the goal of becoming a carbon-neutral country by 2060, something they committed to years ago with huge solar and wind farms. Now, China is a world leader in renewables, with a plant with a surface area larger than that of Manhattan and innovations such as enormous marine and terrestrial wind turbines (so much so that they are altering the local microclimate).

Pharaonic ambition. The new project will not be left behind. As we read in the South China Morning Post, the country has just approved the construction of a new hydroelectric project that, at least in this first report, will produce three times more energy than the Three Gorges Dam. It is estimated that the total investment will exceed 130,000 million euros, becoming the largest infrastructure on the planet and leaving Saudi Arabia’s colossal The Line in nothing.

And the new dam is also expected to generate almost 300 billion kWh of electricity annually. The Three Gorges Dam, which currently has the largest capacity in the world, “only” produces 88.2 billion kWh annually. It will be enough to reportedly meet the annual needs of more than 300 million people.

Straight. These are shocking figures and even difficult to understand, but the path until the new Chinese megadam becomes a reality will not be easy. The first is because, although it is not known exactly where it will be. It may be located in the Yarlung Tsangpo River area, one of the richest in hydropower resources in the world, which is located in Tibet and presents significant engineering challenges.

The reason is that the area is a canyon – also the deepest on Earth – that has a vertical difference of more than 7,600 meters. That canyon reaches India and the river mixes with the Brahmaputra, and the idea is to drill between four and six 20-kilometer-long tunnels through the Namcha Barwa mountain to divert half of the river’s flow to about 2,000 meters. cubic per second.

Clave. Another problem is that yes, the area is ideal for a project of this magnitude, but the area is a boundary of tectonic plates in which it would not be unusual for an earthquake to occur, something that already raised doubts among experts when it began. to talk about the project a few years ago. Despite everything, the fact that China has approved the project means that we will begin to know specific details of it in the future.

The report, as stated by the state agency Xinhua, details that “it represents an important movement in the green energy transition in China. It is also of great importance to achieve the country’s strategy to achieve carbon neutrality and confront global climate change “.

In Xinhua it is also stated that this large hydroelectric project will prioritize ecological protection and we only have to wait for exact details such as construction times and location to be given. Of course, taking into account the magnitude of the project, it is something that will take a long time.

Image | The Grand Portage

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