China officially turns on first two units of world’s second-biggest hydropower dam Baihetan Dam

China officially turns on first two units of world’s second-biggest hydropower dam Baihetan Dam

• The Government of China officially turned on the first two generating units of the Baihetan Dam, the world’s second-biggest hydroelectric dam, on June 28, 2021, to start generating energy..
• The Baihetan Dam is set up on the Jinsha River, in southwestern China.
• The dam is a 289-meter-tall (954-foot-tall) double-curvature arch dam, having 16 generating units.
• Each unit will have generating capacity of 1 million kilowatts, making it the second biggest in size after the “Three Gorges Dam” opened in 2003 on the Yangtze, with 22.5 million kilowatts of generating capacity.
• Through the Baihetan Dam, Chinese government aims to curb surging fossil fuel demand by building more hydropower capacity.
• Both the dams have been built by the state-owned Three Gorges Group Corp., the world’s biggest investor in hydro, solar and wind generation.