Beijing, Dec:26 China has approved the construction of what is expected to become the world’s largest hydropower dam on the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River in Tibet, a project with massive renewable energy potential but significant environmental and geopolitical implications.
The dam, set to generate an estimated 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, will surpass the capacity of China’s current largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam, which has a designed capacity of 88.2 billion kWh, reported by Reuters.
According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, the project will play a pivotal role in advancing China’s carbon peaking and neutrality goals, stimulate related industries such as engineering, and provide employment opportunities in Tibet.
The ambitious project will be located in a geographically challenging area where the Yarlung Zangbo drops 2,000 meters over a 50-kilometer stretch. The site’s unique conditions provide enormous hydropower potential but pose unprecedented engineering challenges.
The total cost is expected to surpass the 254.2 billion yuan ($34.83 billion) spent on the Three Gorges Dam, which displaced 1.4 million people. However, Chinese authorities have not disclosed how many people this new project might displace or detailed its potential impact on the local ecosystem, one of the most biodiverse regions on the Tibetan plateau.
While Chinese officials assert that hydropower projects in Tibet will have minimal environmental impacts and will not significantly affect downstream water supplies, critics remain skeptical. The dam is situated in an ecologically sensitive region, raising questions about habitat disruption and biodiversity loss.
Concerns about displacement have also been highlighted, though no official figures have been provided.
The Yarlung Zangbo becomes the Brahmaputra River as it flows into India’s northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, and eventually into Bangladesh. Both nations have expressed concerns over the dam’s potential to alter river flow, impact downstream water availability, and disrupt local ecologies.
China has already initiated hydropower projects on the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo and plans additional developments upstream, further heightening regional tensions.
Xinhua emphasized the project’s importance for China’s renewable energy transition, stating it will “play a major role in meeting China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.”
As China pushes forward with its renewable energy ambitions, the massive hydropower project underscores both the potential for clean energy generation and the broader geopolitical and ecological challenges such initiatives bring, particularly for downstream nations like India and Bangladesh.
