The Gorges Dam is The World's Largest Power Station

The World's largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity (18,200 MW). Built at a cost of $40 billion, the total installed capacity would top 22,500 MW in 2011.

An aerial view shows the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Yichang, Hubei province. The construction of the Three Gorges project began in 1993 and was finished in 2009. It started generating generating electricity in 2003.



Located in Yichang city in central China's Hubei province, the dam is 2,309-meter-long and has a height of 185 -meters. It has five-tier ship lock to facilitate smooth shipping operations.For the first time, all 32 giant generators of China's Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, went into production, generating nearly 22 million kw of power.



The 32 generators of the 180-billion-yuan Three Gorges project, which was launched in 1993, have a combined generating capacity of 22.4 million kw, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.



Apart from producing electricity, the Three Gorges Dam, a multi-functional water control system costing $22.5 billion, is intended to increase the Yangtze River's shipping capacity and reduce the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space.



It is the first time all 32 generators, including the last turbine, started up at the same time, said Zhang Chengping, head of the machinery and electronic engineering bureau of the China Three Gorges Corporation.



The outbound flow rose to 34,000 cubic meters per second on Monday evening due to floodwater from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and it was sufficient for the operation of the 32 generators, which has a full load of 700,000 kw each, he said.