New dam turns on power units

The first two generating units of the world’s secondbiggest hydroelectric dam were officially turned on Monday in southwestern China, the government announced.

The Baihetan Dam on the Jinsha River is part of Chinese efforts to curb surging fossil fuel demand by building more hydropower capacity at a time when dams have fallen out of favor in other countries due to environmental complaints.

Plans call for the 954foottall Baihetan Dam to have 16 generating units with a capacity of 1 million kilowatts each. That will make it second in size after the Three Gorges Dam, opened in 2003 on the Yangtze, with 22.5 million kilowatts of generating capacity.

Despite criticism by environmentalists, China is building more dams in an effort to reduce reliance on coal and to curb surging demand for imported oil and gas.

China is a leader in developing ultrahighvoltage, or UHV, transmission technology to move power from dams in the southwest to Shanghai and other eastern cities.

China News Service / AFP via Getty Images Water is released from the Baihetan Dam on the Jinsha River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The 954foottall dam will eventually have a power capacity second only to the Three Gorges Dam, opened by China in 2003.