THE top of the Three Gorges Dam will be complete next month, according to the project's organizers. The reservoir will have a raised water line of 156 meters from 139 meters, and will officially open to tourists as the world's largest hydropower installation in October, Xinhua news agency reported today.

The Three Gorges Project, launched in 1993 and made up of a 185-meter-high dam and 26 generators on both banks of the Yangtze, is being built in three phases.

In the second phase, which began in July 2003, concrete was poured on the southern bank extending it to 660 meters. It is scheduled to be complete in early 2007.

As the southern bank of the dam's construction is near completion, the entire project will now be finished nine months ahead of schedule, a project official said.

The dam will be 2,309 meters long and 185 meters high. It is situated on the middle of the Yangtze River, on the easternmost of the Three Gorges, near Xiling Gorge.

The gigantic dam is a multi-functional water-control facility.

"The Three Gorges Project will be capable of controlling flood waters from the Yangtze River, and it will be capable of generating more electricity as the water levels stored in the reservoir will rise from 135 meters to 156 meters," said Cao Guangjing, deputy general manager of the dam project.

So far, 14 turbo-generators have been installed on the northern bank, generating 409 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity last year.

The entire Three Gorges Project is expected to be completed in 2009, generating 84.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually.
source:Xinhua
tag:Hydropower,clean energy,China energy