Hey fam! Big news from the southwest of the Chinese mainland: the Yebatan Hydropower Station has just kicked off reservoir filling 🚀. This marks the final countdown before the first turbines start generating clean power later this year! ⚡
Part of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), Yebatan is a high-tech concrete double-curvature arch dam – the highest-altitude hydropower project in the Chinese mainland – holding back the Jinsha River at the Sichuan-Xizang border.
With an installed capacity of 2,240 MW, it'll power millions of homes. During construction, engineers even extracted a record-breaking 38.1m-long concrete core sample – talk about precision engineering! 🔬🛠️
The reservoir will fill in two stages: first, rising to the 2,855m minimum operating level for initial power tests by year-end. Then, by October next year, it'll reach the 2,889m normal pool level for full operation, maximizing the cascade of clean-energy stations along the Jinsha.
Once fully live, Yebatan will crank out over 10.2 billion kWh annually – that's like saving 4 million tonnes of coal and cutting 7.37 million tonnes of CO2 each year 🌍💚. Plus, the juice will flow east via the world's highest-altitude UHV (ultra-high voltage) DC hybrid line, mixing hydropower and solar PV to boost central China's grid and local growth.
Construction kicked off in September 2018, with full operation slated for 2026. Stay tuned as this mega-project supercharges clean energy in Asia and beyond! 🌱🔥
Reference(s):
SW China's Yebatan hydropower station begins filling reservoir
cgtn.com
