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Baihetan Dam

China

The 5th largest power station in the world

16 GW · Capacity

The Baihetan Dam is a large hydroelectric dam on the Jinsha River, an upper stretch of the Yangtze River in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, in southwest China. The dam is a 289-meter-tall double-curvature arch dam with a crest elevation of 827 m, and a width of 72 m at the base and 13 m at the crest. It is considered to be the last large hydropower project in China after a series of projects starting with the Three Gorges Dam. It is also the second largest hydropower plant in the world. The hydropower station is equipped with 16 hydro-generating units each having a capacity of 1 gigawatt, the world's largest turbines. All hydro-generating units of the Baihetan hydropower station became fully operational on 20 December 2022. The dam is also part of the "world's largest clean energy corridor", where it joins other mega hydropower projects like the Three Gorges Dam, Wudongde Dam, Xiluodu Dam, and Xiangjiaba Dam, all located on the same river system, to produce and transmit renewable energy from the resource-rich western region to the cities in the east. In addition to power generation, the hydropower project also provides flood control, improved navigation, and sand blocking.

Power station data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).

More power stations in China

  1. Three Gorges Dam22.5 GW
  2. Xiluodu Dam13.86 GW
  3. Wudongde Hydropower Station10.2 GW
  4. Gansu Wind Farm7.97 GW
  5. Xiangjiaba Dam7.75 GW

Other large power stations worldwide

  1. Bui Dam · Ghana1,440 GW
  2. Western Green Energy Hub · Australia50 GW
  3. Gujarat Hybrid Renewable Energy Park · India30 GW
  4. Three Gorges Dam · China22.5 GW
  5. Itaipu Dam · Paraguay14 GW
  6. Xiluodu Dam · China13.86 GW
  7. Belo Monte Dam · Brazil11 GW
  8. Guri Dam · Venezuela10.24 GW