The O Dong De Dam generated electricity from all 12 turbines on June 16, supplying power from the Yangtze River Valley in the southwest to the most densely populated areas in the country.
O Dong De – the seventh largest hydropower dam in the world plays a crucial role in the plan to meet the growing domestic electricity consumption while reducing emissions. Yang Zongli, the project director, stated that the 12 turbines at the station could help the country achieve its goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by at least 65% from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. Once all turbines are operational, the power supply for the Guangdong – Hong Kong – Macau region will be secured.
O Dong De Dam at the border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. (Photo: Xinhua).
The O Dong De hydropower station will provide an average of 38.9 billion kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity annually once it operates at full capacity, equivalent to burning 12.2 million tons of coal, helping to reduce 30.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The daily electricity output of the station alone is sufficient to meet the annual electricity needs of 300,000 people. After the first cluster of generators began operating at the end of June 2020, the station produced 24 billion KWH, enough to supply a city of 8.5 million people for 8 months.
The O Dong De Dam, valued at $18.7 billion, spans the Jinsha River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, near the border between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces. In 2015, before construction began, geologists and water experts warned that building a dam in a seismically active area was very risky and that the dam could destroy the ecology downstream of the Yangtze River.
With a total capacity of 7.4 billion cubic meters of water, equivalent to nearly 3 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, the O Dong De Dam is designed to control floods and facilitate river traffic. The maximum flood discharge of the dam can reach 27,000 cubic meters per second, enough to fill West Lake in Hangzhou in just 7 minutes.
This is the first dam in a series of four dams along the Jinsha River. At a height of 270 meters, O Dong De is one of the tallest dams in the world, surpassing the Three Gorges Dam located 950 kilometers to the east (181 meters).
