Just as it’s hitting its annual flood peak, China has officially launched the last 32 generators at the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, making it the most powerful hydropower station in the world. Earlier in the week, waterflow through the dame peaked at 70 000 cubic metres per second.

The dam, which first opened in 2003, was built with two primary purposes, “a solution to the frequent floods of China’s longest river and a source of badly-needed electricity.” Since its inception it has been marred with controversy for numerous reasons, not least of which was the forced relocation of 1.4 million people to make way for its construction. There are also claims that it critically altered China’s geology, disrupts the Yangtze watershed and traps pollution, poisoning water supplies.

Still, with the capacity to store at least 26 000 cubic litres of flood water per second, it goes a long way towards taking the edge of recent floods which have already seen at least 100 deaths. Currently waterflow through the dam measures 43 000 cubic litres per second, marking the worst flooding in the area in recent history.

Through the devastation though, the damn has reached its highest operating capacity to date at 22.5 million kilowatts, equaling that of 15 nuclear reactors.

‘The full operation of the generators makes the Three Gorges Dam the world’s largest hydropower project and largest base of clean energy,’ said Zhang Cheng, general manager of China Yangtze Power, the operator of the generators.

[Source: Daily Mail]