This giant work produces a titanic energy.
With its more than 2 kilometers long and 185 meters high, the Chinese Three Gorges Dam, on the Yangzi Jiang, is the largest hydraulic structure in the world.
It broke the annual electricity production record in 2020, its operator, China Three Gorges Corporation, announced on Monday.
By itself, it generated as much electricity as nearly a third of the French nuclear fleet, or 111.795 billion kilowatt-hours.
The dam saved more than 31 million tonnes of coal from burning
Unlike the EDF plants, which had a very bad year, the Chinese dam was in no way disturbed by the pandemic.
On the contrary, if he was able to break the world record, held since 2016 by the Brazilian Itaipu dam, it is thanks to the torrential rains which generously fed the Yangzi last year and filled the 600 kilometers to the brim. dam retention.
At a time when Beijing has set targets for reducing CO2 emissions, the dam has prevented the burning of more than 31 million tons of coal, and therefore saved more than 86 million tons of CO2 , trumpeted the China Three Gorges Corporation.
The performance of this hydraulic giant, which started producing in 2003, however, was not enough to avoid frequent power cuts in recent weeks in many Chinese regions.
To provide electricity to an ever more energy-hungry economy, China continues to build coal-fired power stations ...