The Three Gorges Project was the multi-decade Chinese state initiative that planned, funded and built the Three Gorges Dam and its power station on the Yangtze River, along with a five-stage ship lock and a ship lift. Formal construction ran from 1994 to 2012, following decades of study and debate over the scheme first proposed under Sun Yat-sen in 1919. The project required the resettlement of more than 1.3 million people from the reservoir area and drew sustained international scrutiny over its environmental and social costs alongside its stated flood-control, navigation and power-generation goals. It remains one of the largest engineering undertakings ever completed by a single nation.
Facts
Project TypeHydroelectric Dam Project 1 LocationChina (Hubei Province, Yangtze River) 1 Completion Year StatusCompleted and fully operational since 2012; ancillary ship-lift work continued to 2015 2 ScaleBuilt the world's largest power station by installed capacity, 22,500 MW, at a cost of over USD 25 billion 2 Connections
Uses Source
Hydroelectric dam project on the Yangtze River, Hubei, China, the largest power station in the world by installed capacity.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: China, located there.
Sources
1. Encyclopedia Britannica
2. International Hydropower Association Official Site
International Hydropower Associationhttps://www.hydropower.org/iha/discover-history-of-hydropowerQuote, https://www.hydropower.org/iha/discover-history-of-hydropower
The Itaipu Dam, straddling Brazil and Paraguay, opened in 1984 with a capacity of 12,600 MW - it has since been enlarged and upgraded to 14,000 MW - and is today only eclipsed in size by the 22,500 MW Three Gorges Dam in China.
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