China to build world’s largest hydroelectric dam in Tibet

China has approved the construction of the world’s largest dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, the main tributary of the Brahmaputra River.
Beijing on Friday defended its plan to go ahead with the construction of a colossal hydroelectric project on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, promising that it would have no adverse effects on India and Bangladesh.
Notably, the Yarlung Tsangpo flows through the Tibetan Plateau, forming the world’s deepest canyon and plunging 7,667 meters before reaching India. The Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon is longer and deeper than the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River in the United States. The Yarlung Tsangpo is called the Everest of rivers, because it is considered the most difficult river to navigate.

China’s mega-dam project is being touted as a strategic move to assert control over important water resources, but it will undoubtedly stoke geopolitical tensions with India, as well as environmental challenges.

The dam is expected to generate nearly 300 billion kWh a year, surpassing the Three Gorges Dam.

“It is also of great significance in advancing the country’s strategy to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality and tackle global climate change,” Beijing-based Xinhua News reported.

When completed, the project is expected to generate 300 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy a year, which would be three times more than the world’s largest dam, the Three Gorges Dam, also in China, with a capacity of 88.2 billion kWh.

Beijing is expected to spend more than a trillion yuan ($137 billion) on the new dam, making it the world’s largest single infrastructure project by far.

The Yarlung Tsangpo River, which rises in Tibet, flows east to India and Bangladesh, where it is known as the Brahmaputra.
The dam, to be located on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, could generate three times more power than the Three Gorges Dam, currently the world’s largest hydroelectric power station.
Among them are fears that construction of the dam, first announced in late 2020, could displace local communities, as well as significantly alter the natural landscape and damage local ecosystems, which are among the richest and most diverse on the Tibetan Plateau.

China has built several dams in Tibetan areas, a contentious issue in a region tightly controlled by Beijing since it was annexed in the 1950s.
China has the world’s largest hydropower capacity, totaling 425 gigawatts (GW). Even in 2022, when drought reduced hydropower output, the country got 15% of its electricity from that segment, according to BloombergNEF.

Hydropower has rebounded this year from historic droughts in 2022 and 2023, but hydropower generation has been in decline since September, leading to more fossil-fuel-powered electricity production.

Although coal’s share of China’s electricity generation has been declining in recent years with the rise of renewables, coal-fired power generation and demand in China remain strong. Coal still accounts for about 60% of China’s power generation, despite a surge in hydropower earlier this year after heavy rains reduced coal’s share of the country’s energy mix over the summer.