{"id":60091787,"date":"2025-07-24T12:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T11:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/?post_type=news_digest&p=60091787"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:30:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T11:30:50","slug":"worlds-largest-hydropower-project-being-built-in-tibet","status":"publish","type":"news_digest","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/digest\/worlds-largest-hydropower-project-being-built-in-tibet\/","title":{"rendered":"World\u2019s largest hydropower project being built in Tibet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China has broken ground on the Yarlung Zangbo River hydroelectric project on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once completed, it will be the world’s largest such project with a total installed capacity of 60 gigawatts, three times that of the Three Gorges power station.

Consisting of five cascade power stations on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo, the project will cost about CNY 1.2 trillion (USD 170 billion), reported Xinhua<\/a>. Except for local use in Tibet, most of the electricity will be sent to other places.

The project has been discussed for decades before being approved by the state at the end of last year, <\/a>reported Energy magazine<\/a>. The clean power it generates has the potential to replace about 100 million tonnes of coal per year and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 300 million tonnes, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yarlung Zangbo River becomes the Brahmaputra as it flows into India and eventually Bangladesh. These downstream countries have always had doubts about the project, raising concerns about risks to communities who rely on the river’s current flow. The dams will also be built in one of China’s most biodiverse regions, leaving conservationists concerned about loss of habitat to reservoirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to China Daily<\/a>, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said there are safeguard measures in terms of engineering safety and ecological protection, so the project will not adversely affect downstream areas.

A group of Chinese scholars published an article<\/a> last year stating that the primary forests of the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon are China\u2019s largest and most complete. Before building hydropower, a comprehensive survey of the area\u2019s biodiversity should be carried out, they said, considering not only the impact of the project on biodiversity but also the long-term ecological security consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to an analysis in The Paper<\/a>, the new project will be part of an integrated base of \u201cwater, wind, photovoltaic and storage\u201d in Tibet. It is estimated that by 2050, Tibet will deliver more than 500 terawatt-hours of clean electricity annually. For comparison, the UK\u2019s consumption last year was 280 TWh.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read Dialogue Earth\u2019s previous <\/em>analysis<\/em><\/a> of the possibility of creating a Yarlung Zangbo national park.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China has broken ground on the Yarlung Zangbo River hydroelectric project on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":60006649,"template":"","categories":[757],"tags":[20000121,50040314,537,50042207,554,556],"country":[20000110],"digest-collection":[50039911],"class_list":["post-60091787","news_digest","type-news_digest","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-brahmaputra","tag-dams","tag-ecosystems","tag-energy-storage","tag-hydropower","tag-infrastructure","country-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWorld\u2019s largest hydropower project being built in Tibet | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"China has broken ground on the Yarlung Zangbo River hydroelectric project on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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