Disclaimer: All articles have official and reliable sources of information, which have been repeated in the article.
Preface
When it comes to water conservancy projects on the mainland, the first thing that comes to mind is the Three Gorges Dam, a water conservancy project located on the Yangtze River, which has created huge benefits for the mainland from its completion to the present day.
But what many people don't know is that in addition to the Three Gorges Dam, there is also a Baihetan hydropower station on the Yangtze River, which was planned to be built in the fifties of the last century, but was shelved for various reasons, and finally cost 220 billion yuan to complete the construction, and has been in operation for three years.
So has the Baihetan Hydropower Station paid for itself? Why is it so long from planned construction to completion?
More than 220 billion investment
The construction of the Baihetan Hydropower Station can be traced back to 1954, when the Yangtze River was hit by a catastrophic flood, and the mainland planned to build a water conservancy project on the main stream of the Jinsha River in the context of both post-disaster reconstruction and long-term planning.
Two years later, pioneers from the Design Institute of the Yunnan Water Conservancy and Electric Power Department began to conduct field exploration work on the precipitous Baihetan River, but later due to the breakdown of Sino-Soviet relations and the special period of "three years of difficulty", the preliminary work of the Baihetan hydropower station had to be suspended.
In 1965, the Baihetan Hydropower Station was put on the agenda again, and the following year, more than 40 experts in the field from the mainland gathered in Qiaojia, Yunnan Province, to conduct a period survey of the Baihetan Hydropower Station.
After the reform and opening up, the mainland's economy has developed rapidly, and at the same time, the demand for energy is also increasing, in this case, the construction plan of the Baihetan hydropower station is mentioned again.
After more than ten years of investigation and research, the Baihetan Hydropower Station project was officially approved, and then the area began to carry out engineering migrant work, when the relocation of 103,500 people was completed, the Baihetan Hydropower Station officially began to be put into construction in 2017.
Located in the Jinsha River Gorge at the junction of Ningnan County in Sichuan Province and Qiaojia County in Yunnan Province, the Baihetan Hydropower Station has complex geological structure and frequent seismic activity, which requires detailed geological exploration and evaluation, as well as high-level seismic design.
In addition, the steep terrain of the canyon increases the difficulty and cost of construction, and special technology and equipment are required to stabilize the high slope and excavate the underground cavern.
In addition, the Baihetan Hydropower Station has a total installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts, second only to the Three Gorges Power Station and the second largest in the world, with a total reservoir capacity of 19.145 billion cubic meters and a dam of 300 meters high concrete double-curved arch dams.
The hydropower station is equipped with 16 sets of hydro-generator units with a single capacity of one million kilowatts, and the R&D, manufacturing, installation and commissioning of these super-large power generation equipment represent the world's top technical level, which is expensive, in addition, it is necessary to establish a complete automatic control system and safety monitoring system to ensure the efficient and safe operation of the power station.
In order to reduce the impact on the natural environment, the Baihetan Hydropower Station has implemented a series of environmental protection measures, such as ecological restoration and fish protection facilities, and the construction of the power station involves the resettlement of nearly 100,000 migrants, which is expensive and complex.
As of the completion of the Baihetan Hydropower Station, the total investment has exceeded the cost of 220 billion yuan, and now the Baihetan Hydropower Station has been successfully running for three years, so has the cost been recovered now?
Source: Visit to Baihetan Hydropower Station 2024-06-21-Xinhuanet
The value of the Baihetan Hydropower Station
As a hydropower station second only to the Three Gorges Project, Baihetan Hydropower Station not only bears the world's second strongest water thrust, but also shoulders the important task of "power transmission from west to east", with an average annual power generation of 62.4 billion kilowatt hours, like a green artery, nourishing the prosperity and development of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
By the end of March 2024, the Baihetan Hydropower Station has generated more than 120 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which is equivalent to saving more than 36 million tons of standard coal, which not only saves a lot of money, but also makes a huge contribution to energy conservation and emission reduction.
Information source: CCTV 2021.05.30 "Baihetan Hydropower Station Creates Six World Firsts and Can Save About 19.68 Million Tons of Standard Coal Every Year"
Although the direct economic return of Baihetan is about 30 billion yuan based on the current subsidized electricity price, far less than its huge investment of 220 billion yuan, the value behind this is far from measurable by the numbers.
As a strategic project with an eye to the future, the real value of Baihetan lies in its long-term economic, social and environmental benefits, and in just three years, it has shown amazing production capacity, indicating that it will continue to export clean and reliable electricity to the country in the coming decades, and is expected to replicate or even surpass the brilliant achievements of the Three Gorges Project and achieve long-term economic returns.
The multi-functionality of Baihetan Hydropower Station cannot be ignored, in addition to power generation, it also plays multiple roles such as flood control and shipping, and has an irreplaceable role in promoting the comprehensive development of the regional economy.
In the context of the growing global demand for clean energy, Baihetan's participation in carbon trading and other potential additional benefits will further enhance its economic value and shorten the payback period.
In addition, its indirect promotion of downstream industrial upgrading, its stabilizing effect on the power grid as a giant peaking power station, and the industrial chain effect generated in equipment manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance have all silently added impetus to the economic system and created a large number of jobs.
More importantly, the environmental benefits of the Baihetan Hydropower Station are also significant, reducing carbon emissions and improving the atmospheric environment, although these contributions are difficult to measure in monetary terms, but in fact accumulate valuable ecological wealth for the society.
In the long run, this translates into substantial economic value, with a design life of up to 100 years, meaning that this green legacy will benefit future generations and provide a solid foundation for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Therefore, although the initial investment in the construction of Baihetan Hydropower Station is huge, but its comprehensive benefits are all-round and long-term, it is estimated that only from the feed-in tariff, the power station can create more than 20 billion yuan of income per year, and the payback period is optimistically estimated to be achieved within more than ten years.
This means that this is not only an economic project that can return to its original cost and create hundreds of billions of wealth, but also a national important weapon with immeasurable strategic value, and a milestone project for China's green and low-carbon development.
The mainstay of the clean energy corridor
As early as the early stage of construction, the Baihetan Hydropower Station was regarded as an important part of the clean energy corridor by the state, so it is an important part of the clean energy corridor.
In the context of global warming and environmental protection, the development and utilization of renewable energy has become a global consensus, and hydropower, as one of the most mature and large-scale clean energy with the most potential for development, plays an irreplaceable role in reducing dependence on fossil energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The installed capacity of Baihetan Hydropower Station has reached 16 million kilowatts, with an average annual power generation of about 62.443 billion kilowatt hours, which is equivalent to saving about 19.68 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 51.6 million tons per year.
This amazing power generation capacity and emission reduction effect make it occupy a core position in the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, and make a significant contribution to promoting the optimization and upgrading of the energy structure of the mainland and even the world.
Baihetan Hydropower Station is not only large-scale, but also adopts a large number of innovative technologies in design, construction and operation management, and a number of technical indicators have reached the world's leading level.
For example, it has adopted the world's largest single-unit capacity million-kilowatt hydro-generator unit, overcoming world-class technical problems such as high arch dams, extra-high slope stability, and excavation of super-large underground caverns, demonstrating China's scientific and technological innovation strength in the field of hydropower.
These technological innovations not only improve the overall efficiency of hydropower stations, but also provide valuable experience and demonstration effects for the development of hydropower and other clean energy technologies around the world.
The Baihetan Hydropower Station plays a key role in China's western development strategy and the energy allocation pattern of "West-to-East Power Transmission", which transmits clean electricity to economically developed areas such as East China through ultra-high voltage direct current transmission lines, effectively alleviating the power shortage in the eastern region and promoting the balanced development of the regional economy.
At the same time, the access of large-scale hydropower has significantly increased the proportion of renewable energy in the power grid, enhanced the peak regulation capacity of the power grid, created conditions for the large-scale access of intermittent renewable energy such as wind power and solar energy, and accelerated the pace of transformation of the mainland's energy structure from fossil energy to diversification and cleanness.
While focusing on energy production, Baihetan Hydropower Station also fully considers ecological protection and restoration, and adopts a series of biodiversity conservation measures during the implementation of the project, such as the construction of fish breeding and release stations and the establishment of ecological flow discharge mechanisms, in an effort to reduce the impact on the river ecosystem.
In addition, the regulating effect of the reservoir can also effectively alleviate the downstream flood disaster, improve the condition of the waterway, and promote the rational use and protection of water resources, which reflects the sustainable development concept of taking into account the ecological and environmental protection while developing clean energy.
epilogue
Although the Baihetan Hydropower Project has not fully recovered more than 220 billion yuan of investment so far, it has efficiently converted a huge amount of clean energy in just three years, and the results are remarkable.
Looking ahead, this hydropower station, which ranks second in the world, will continue to inject inexhaustible impetus into the green development of the mainland as a key member of the world's premier clean energy corridor, and write a new chapter in green ecological construction.