The Three Gorges Project in numbers: The overall report card of the “polygonal warrior”!

The Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River, built and operated by China Three Gorges Corporation, is by far the world's largest water conservancy project and the hydropower project with the most comprehensive benefits. Since its commissioning, the project has continued to operate in good condition, and its comprehensive benefits such as flood control, power generation, shipping, and water resource utilization have been fully realized.

Recently, in the 2022 "Beautiful Three Gorges" online review brand activity guided by the Network Society Work Bureau of the Central Cyberspace Administration of China and other units, relevant central and local media and positive Internet figures once again focused on the Three Gorges project of the century.

How much do you know about the Three Gorges Project?

Today, let’s go into the Three Gorges Project, a “great weapon of a great country”, and get to know this “polygonal warrior” with explosive combat effectiveness in depth!

Flood prevention: Save the Yangtze River from danger

The total flood storage volume exceeds 208.8 billion cubic meters, equivalent to the water volume of 15,000 West Lakes

The construction of the Three Gorges Project has rewritten the painful history of water control of the Chinese nation.

The Three Gorges Project is located at the junction of the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

It is adjacent to the Jingjiang River section where the flood control situation is most severe. It has a flood control storage capacity of 22.15 billion cubic meters, which exceeds 30% of the total flood control storage capacity of reservoirs included in the joint dispatch of the Yangtze River Basin in 2022. It plays a backbone and main role in flood control dispatch in the Yangtze River Basin.

▲Three Gorges Reservoir

Since the first experimental water storage at 175 meters was started in 2008, by the end of 2021 (2021 is the first year of 175-meter water storage during the normal operation of the Three Gorges Project), the Three Gorges Project has carried out 66 flood control dispatches, defended against 20 numbered floods, and stored more than 208.8 billion cubic meters of flood water.

▲Flood discharge from the Three Gorges Dam

2010, 2012, 2020

The maximum flood peak entering the reservoir exceeded 70,000 cubic meters per second. After being intercepted and stored in the reservoir, the flood peak was reduced by about 40%, greatly alleviating the flood control pressure in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

Especially in 2020, the Three Gorges Project successfully responded to the largest flood peak since its construction (75,000 cubic meters per second). The upstream reservoir group centered on the Three Gorges intercepted and staggered the flood peak, avoiding the activation of the Jingjiang flood diversion area, and preventing the relocation of 600,000 people in the Jingjiang flood diversion area, and preventing 493,000 acres of cultivated land and more than 100,000 acres of aquaculture areas from being flooded, with huge benefits in flood control and disaster reduction.

Power generation: Let green energy light up China

The cumulative production of high-quality clean electricity is nearly 1.5 trillion kWh, equivalent to saving more than 400 million tons of standard coal.

The Three Gorges Power Station, which has 34 units and a total installed capacity of 22.5 million kilowatts, is a backbone power source for my country's "West-to-East Power Transmission" and "North-South Power Supply". It is the world's hydropower commanding heights and a new landmark of China's reform and development.

The annual power generation of the Three Gorges Power Station exceeded 100 billion kWh three times. In 2020, the power generation reached 111.8 billion kWh, breaking the world record set by the Itaipu Power Station in Brazil.

▲ Transmission lines

As of December 2021, the Three Gorges Power Station has produced a total of nearly 1.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of high-quality clean electricity, equivalent to saving more than 400 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 1.2 billion tons. It has strongly supported the power supply in East China, Central China, Guangdong and other regions, and has become an important large-scale clean energy production base in my country. It has played an important role in optimizing the energy structure, maintaining safe and stable operation of the power grid, realizing the interconnection of the national power grid, and promoting energy conservation and emission reduction.

The steady supply of clean energy has brought about huge energy-saving and emission-reduction effects, and has contributed to my country's construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system and to achieving the "dual carbon" goals.

Shipping: Let the beautiful Three Gorges be abuzz with ships

The cumulative cargo volume passing through the lock is 1.76 billion tons, and the containers connected end to end can circle the earth more than 20 times

The water storage of the Three Gorges Project has improved the navigation conditions of the Yangtze River between Yichang, Hubei and Chongqing, and rewritten the history of water transportation development of the Yangtze River, the world's third largest river.

In 2008, after the experimental water storage at 175 meters of the Three Gorges Reservoir began, the backwater of the Yangtze River in the reservoir area could reach Chongqing, and the upper Yangtze River waterway was deepened and widened. The annual one-way throughput capacity of the reservoir waterway was increased from 10 million tons before the reservoir was built to more than 50 million tons. Not only can 10,000-ton fleets reach Chongqing directly, but navigation is also possible all year round, making the Yangtze River waterway a veritable "golden waterway."

After the water storage, the Three Gorges Project has also contributed to promoting the development of shipping-related industries, reducing shipping costs, and improving the safety of ship navigation and operations.

Data shows that the towing capacity per kilowatt of ships in the Three Gorges Reservoir area has increased from 1.5 tons before the reservoir was built to the current 4 to 7 tons, and fuel consumption has dropped significantly. The water transport industry and its related industries in Chongqing have significantly increased the number of workers absorbed by the reservoir area.

The Three Gorges Ship Lock is currently the world's largest inland ship lock with the most continuous stages, the highest water head, and the most complex operating conditions. Since it was opened to public ships on June 18, 2003, as of June 2022, it has operated 183,000 times, with 954,000 ships and 12.24 million passengers passing through, and a cargo volume of 1.76 billion tons. All the cargo can fill more than 70 million 40-foot containers, and the containers connected end to end can circle the earth more than 20 times (based on the equatorial circumference of 40,075.02 kilometers), becoming an important logistics channel serving the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

▲The Three Gorges ship lock is busy with shipping

The Three Gorges Shiplift is the most technically difficult rack-and-pinion vertical shiplift in the world. As of June 2022, the Three Gorges Shiplift has operated more than 18,000 cabins and passed nearly 500,000 passengers.

Water resource utilization: Let a reservoir of clear water nourish the earth

The cumulative water replenishment volume exceeds 330 billion cubic meters, which is close to the water storage capacity of 12 Poyang Lakes.

The water level has risen from the flood control limit of 145 meters to the normal storage level of 175 meters, and has shifted from flood control to storing water in flood season to replenishing water in drought. Along with the rise of the river level, the clear water of the Three Gorges Reservoir has gradually flowed out of the high gorge, which will provide strong guarantee for water supply, shipping, ecology, and power generation in winter and spring.

As an important strategic freshwater resource reservoir in my country, during the dry season in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River from December each year to the first half of the following year, the Three Gorges Reservoir will use the clear water that has long been stored in the reservoir to increase the discharge flow to more than 6,000 cubic meters per second, which can replenish nearly 20 billion cubic meters of water to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

▲Three Gorges Reservoir

Drought relief and water replenishment are the "skillful hands" that mend the cracks in the earth. In late spring of 2011, a once-in-a-century drought hit the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The Three Gorges Reservoir increased its discharge and replenished 5.47 billion cubic meters of water to the downstream area. The water level in the downstream area gradually rose, and the drought was alleviated.

Data shows that as of June 2022, the Three Gorges Reservoir has replenished water to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River for more than 2,500 days, with a total replenishment volume of more than 330 billion cubic meters, which is close to the water storage capacity of 12 Poyang Lakes, improving production, living and ecological water conditions in the middle and lower reaches.

Ecology: Let the clear water of the river flow eastward sustainably

Ecological regulation experiments have been carried out for 12 consecutive years, and the resources of the four major carps have recovered significantly

Carrying out ecological scheduling, it is a "practitioner" of the Yangtze River protection cause.

From 2011 to the spring and summer of 2022, the Three Gorges Reservoir has carried out ecological scheduling experiments for 12 consecutive years to promote the reproduction of drifting egg-laying fish in the downstream section of the Gezhouba Dam. By creating artificial flood peaks, it has created favorable conditions for the spawning and reproduction of the four major carps of the Yangtze River, and protected the aquatic biodiversity of the Yangtze River. The spawning volume of the four major carps of the Yangtze River has generally shown an upward trend.

During the ecological regulation period, the total spawning scale of the four major carps downstream of the Gezhouba Dam increased significantly, which effectively promoted the recovery of fishery resources in the Yangtze River and played a positive role in improving the ecological environment of the Yangtze River.

During the dispatch period, the total number of eggs spawned by the four major carps in the Yidu River section exceeded 23.6 billion, and the resources of the four major carps recovered significantly. In 2022, the total number of eggs laid by fish in the Yidu River section was about 15.7 billion, of which the four major carps laid about 8.9 billion eggs, the highest in history.

Since 2020, the Three Gorges Reservoir has carried out ecological scheduling experiments for fish that lay sticky eggs in the reservoir area. The scope of the ecological scheduling experiments has been expanded from below the dam to the reservoir area. During the 2021 scheduling period, the artificial fish nests in the reservoir area accumulated a proliferation of about 300 million carp and crucian carp, and the scheduling results have begun to show.

The Three Gorges Project, a century-old project that has gone through a century of ups and downs and embodies the indomitable spirit of the Chinese people, writes the nation's expectation of water control and national prosperity, and witnesses the pace of the Chinese nation's rejuvenation. Now, it is contributing its "multilateral" strength to the new era.