The Chinese Shuangjiangkou dam project (PDF)

Academic Paper from the year 2017 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Economic Geography, grade: 1,3, University of St Andrews (School of Geography & Sustainable Development), language: English, abstract: In Western countries water power usually is cherished as a sustainable form of energy. Water mills have been used to transform energy and drive machines for more than 2,000 years now (Sherman, 2009). Today impressing hydroelectric turbines generate extensive amounts of electricity. Water power emerges from hydraulic, tidal and storage power plants and is one hundred percent renewable. When water energy is transformed into electricity, energy simply changes form and water power produces zero CO2 emissions or green hose gases (Spilsbury & Spilsbury, 2007).

Water power is a promising resource in areas disposing of large rivers and valleys. By damming rivers up, water energy can be cumulated, stored and used for energy production in storage power plants. China is leading in this technology (McDonald et al., 2009). The country disposes of the richest hydro resources globally and a further hydroelectric potential of 694 Gigawatts. Diverse large dam projects have been opened up or are under construction at present (Huang & Yan, 2009). The Three Gorges Dam Project cumulates the water of 3 large valleys behind a 185 meters barrage. Opened up in 2010 and located at the Yangtze River - it so far is the world's largest hydropower project. The Three Gorges Dam controls about 451 billion cubic meters of water annually (Fu et al., 2010).