China is developing plans to produce energy on a scale never before seen by the country. What is this Holy Grail of energy and what does it mean for China’s energy industry?
What does China’s energy industry look like right now?
China is the leader in global energy production. Much of the energy produced in China is renewable. In fact, 37% of the world’s production of solar and wind power came from China in 2023.
A good portion of China’s renewable energy comes from hydropower. China is also the leading producer of hydroelectric power, producing 29% of global hydropower. China is home to the world’s 10 biggest dams, each one a valuable producer of hydroelectric power.
A new dam is now under construction along Tibet’s Yarlung Zangbo River in the Himalayan mountains in Medog county. This new project is projected to produce 300 billion kilowatt hours (KWh) every year. This project will serve as a boom to China’s hydroelectric industry, but at what cost?
The controversial history of producing hydroelectric power in China
China has a fraught history producing hydroelectric power. The largest hydroelectric project to date was completed in 2012. The Three Gorges Dam is located on the Yangtze River and produces 103.6 billion KWh of energy each year. According to this article, a similar project might be underway in America.
In order for the project to be completed, residents of the Yangtze region had to be resettled. Between 1993 and 2004, 1.3 million people were displaced. Despite this, a 2004 United Nations Symposium on Hydropower and Sustainable Development found that 40% of the budget for the project went into resettling residents of the area into newly built towns and cities.
It was also found that the Three Gorges Dam is helping to stave off a once-in-a-century mega flood in the Jingjiang River area which is downstream from the reservoir.
Despite the positive results of the dam, the long term effects of relocation on the residents of the area cannot be overlooked.
In addition to the human cost of hydroelectric power systems, the creation of dams for hydroelectric energy requires the flooding of areas, the diversion of rivers, and the disruption or annihilation of entire ecosystems. Weighing up the cost of human and animal wellbeing against long term sustainability goals is no easy feat.
How will this new project be executed and what will it mean for China’s energy industry?
The Chinese government is pumping $137 billion into the project. The Motuo facility will be made up of 28 dams and various tunnels tasked with diverting the water from the dams down the steep slopes of the Namcha Barwa mountain. As the slopes grow steeper, the energy produced will increase. The greatest of these descents is 2,000 meters and spans 50 km.
The project is projected to power 50 million homes each year, usurping the energy capabilities of the Three Gorges Project and aiding in China’s pursuit of net zero carbon emissions in the near future.
China is aiming to greatly reduce its carbon emissions by 2030. This dam, it is thought, can help China become carbon neutral by 2060.
Can this hydroelectric power plant in China bring us closer to global carbon neutrality?
The Paris climate accord, agreed upon almost universally, aims to reduce carbon emissions greatly by reducing human-generated greenhouse gas emissions to “net zero” between 2050 and 2100.
A rise of global temperatures to more than 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels will fundamentally alter our climate, leading to more major weather events, changes in local climates, damage to ecosystems that will lead to extinctions, and a plethora of other effects. An example can be seen in this article about the dramatic climate shifts in this American state.
The hydroelectric power plant at Motuo might just bring us one step closer to staving off the effects of climate change. It remains to be seen, however, whether China can balance the energy demands of the country and the need to reduce carbon emissions with human rights and environmental justice.
