A Visit to the Largest Hydropower Station under Construction in the World: Baihetan Hydropower Station

With the development of China’s hydropower industry, Baihetan Hydropower Station, the largest hydropower station under construction in the world, is now being built as scheduled on Jinshajiang River. Until February 19, 2019, it has taken shape. On the same day, the concrete pouring of the dam kept going on. The highest section poured reached an elevation of 685m, an increase of 140m.

Like the Three Gorges Hydropower Station, it also has achieved a number of world-class achievements. For example, its unit installed capacity reaches one million KW, which ranks first in the world. More important, its core components, the generator units, are innovated by China for the first time.

In addition, as the backbone power-supply point of “West to East Power Transmission Program” in China, Baihetan Hydropower Station is expected to generate electric power in 62.443 billion kWh annually after its completion in 2023, which is closely equal to the total power supply of Chengdu City in 2018.

As the largest hydropower station under construction in the world, Bhutan Hydropower Station ranks among the top in the world regarding the main parameters.

Bhutan Hydropower Station has obtained six world-class achievements during its construction.

For example, the unit installed capacity of 1 million kW, the scale of cylinder-type tail water surge tank, the seismic parameters for dams in the height of 300m, etc. all rank the first in the world;

It is remarkable that, as the "core" of Baihetan Hydropower Station, the hydro-generator units prove to be the ones with the largest unit installed capacity in the world, all of which are made in China. One set could reach the height of 20 meters and the weight of nearly 7,400 tons. The total amounts of the steel used to manufacture one generator are equal to those used to build the Eiffel Tower. All these achievements are greatly significant to improve the scientific research and international competitiveness of China's mechanical and electrical equipment manufacturing and related materials industries