China’s latest Yangtze mega dam powers up all units as country banks on hydropower to curb greenhouse gases

The Wudongde dam is one of the world’s biggest hydroelectric stations and will help meet a pledge to become carbon neutral, according to the project director

The plant on the Jinsha River, as the upper reaches of the Yangtze are known, will help ‘safeguard power supplies’ in the Greater Bay Area

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The Wudongde hydropower station on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces in southwest China. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 8:30pm, 16 Jun 2021Updated: 8:30pm, 16 Jun 2021

All units at a major Chinese dam designed to send power from the Yangtze valley in the southwest to the most populous parts of the country have started generating electricity, state media reported on Wednesday.

Wudongde Dam, the world’s seventh-largest hydroelectric station, is a major plank of the country’s plans to meet its growing electricity needs while cutting emissions.

Yang Zongli, director of the Wudongde project, said the station’s 12 turbines could help the country reach “peak emissions” and “carbon neutrality”, a reference to China’s commitment to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by at least 65 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2060.

“After all units are put into operation, the power supply in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area will be further safeguarded,” Yang told Xinhua.

The station will generate an average of 38.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year after it goes into full operation, the equivalent of burning 12.2 million tonnes of coal – or enough to save 30.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the state broadcaster CCTV. One day’s output alone would be enough to meet the energy needs of 300,000 people for a year.

Since the first batch of power units started running last June, the station has produced 24 billion KWH, enough for a city of 8.5 million people for eight months, CCTV added.