The Bakhachang Hydropower Station project on the Jinsha River in China, upon completion, will boast an installed capacity of up to 16 million kW.
Bakhachang is a hydropower project currently under construction by China on the Jinsha River, a tributary of the upper Yangtze River, located between Sichuan and Yunnan provinces.
With a total installed capacity reaching 16 million kW upon completion, Bakhachang will be the second-largest hydropower facility in the world, following the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province.
Bakhachang is the fourth-largest hydropower dam in the world and the second-largest in China.
Designed as a double-arch concrete dam standing 277 meters tall, 72 meters wide at the base, and 13 meters wide at the top, the project can manage a river basin covering 430,000 km2, which constitutes 91% of the Jinsha River basin.
In terms of volume, the Bakhachang Dam ranks as the fourth-largest hydropower dam globally and the second largest in China.
Concrete is delivered to height by cranes. The core component of the dam is a mix of rock, sand, and binding materials. The binding agents typically include cement and fly ash. Fly ash can reduce the heat generated from the cement’s reaction with water, thereby enhancing the quality of the concrete.
The Bakhachang Hydropower Station is expected to commence electricity production in 2021 and be fully operational by the end of 2022.
The project is anticipated to achieve an electricity output of over 60 billion kWh per year, equivalent to two-thirds of Beijing’s electricity consumption in 2015.
