(TibetanReview.net, Sep29’21) – As power outages in its northeast have plunged millions of homes into darkness, triggering factory shutdowns and threatening to disrupt the water supply in at least one province – as reported by aljazeera.com Sep 28 – China announced Sep 29 that a mega hydropower plant built in a Tibetan region of Sichuan Province at an average altitude of 3,000 meters, the highest one of its kind in the PRC, went into operation.
The first two 500,000-kW power generation units went operational at the Lianghekou hydropower plant on the Yalong River in Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, marking the operation of the plant with a planned total installed capacity of 3 million kW, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Sep 29.
The world’s second highest altitude hydropower station, it consists of 11 high slopes with a maximum of 684 meters, 50 meters higher than the Shanghai Tower, China’s highest building, reported the official globaltimes.cn Sep 29.
It has the world’s deepest reservoir with the maximum water depth in front of the dam being 285 meters, and the world’s highest power station intake tower, being 115 meters high, the report continued.
The flood discharge speed of the station was stated to be the world’s second fastest, capable of generating 6-kilowatt hour when intercepting one cubic meter of water.
The report said the station could generate 11 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually. After completion, it can reduce raw coal consumption by 13.3 million tons and carbon dioxide emission by 21.3 million tons per year, equivalent to building four coal mines with an annual output of 4 million tons, it added.
