Report: China starts dam generator

BEIJING – The first turbine generator on the right bank of China’s massive Three Gorges Dam, the world’s biggest hydropower project, has started operations, state media reported Monday.

The 700,000-kilowatt turbine


It is the first of 12 turbines that will be on the right bank of the $22.5 billion dam on the Yangtze River. The 14 turbines on the left bank began operation in September 2005.

The dam’s 1.5-mile-wide concrete wall was finished last year. Construction started in 1993 despite complaints about high costs, environmental concerns and the forced relocation of 1.4 million residents from areas flooded by the dam’s reservoir.

The government has promoted the dam as a way to control devastating flooding on the Yangtze and as a clean power source, as China tries to cut its heavy reliance on coal.

Three Gorges