Case 16: Three Gorges Dam—The World’s Largest Hydroelectric Plant

Abstract

The construction began in the year 1994. Three Gorges Dam which was commissioned in the year 2013 is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world in terms of electricity production. The dam has a generating capacity of 22,500 megawatts (MW). The dam is located in the Xilingxia Gorge which is one of three gorge of the Yangtze River in Hubei province in China. The Three Gorges dam have an inspiring structure. It is one of the few man-made structures on Earth which is visible to the naked eye from space according to NASA. The 26 power generating units with a generating capacity of 700 MW are designed to produce a total of 84.7 BkWh/year. Three Gorges dam with 2.3 km long is one of the world’s largest dams. Over 40,000 workers were involved in the project which took 17 years for completion. The construction was phenomenal in sense that approximately 28 million cubic meters of concrete were used for its construction. Spillway gates have been installed along the concrete shoots which hurl water over 100 m downstream. The dam has a height of 185 m and is 2309 m wide. The output from the dam project of 85 TW/h is close to one tenth of the current Chinese requirements for power generation. The final estimation cost of the project was expected to be US$22.5 billion (180 billion yuan).The project was aimed at the economic growth of China along with objectives of flood management along the Yangtze River. The dam will be a boost for Yangtze River trade which basically accounts for about 80% of China’s inland shipping. It is stated that the dam plays an important role in environmental protection as million tons of plastic bag wastes are prevented from flowing out to sea. The project costed around $28.6 billion and took two decades for completion. The project displaced more than 1 million people along the Yangtze River.