Three Gorges Dam

Also known as 3 Gorges Dam, Three Gorges

hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, China

AI overview

The Three Gorges Dam is a massive hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River in China, near the town of Sandouping, and generates electricity from the river's flow. It is one of the world's largest dams and represents a major engineering project for China's power generation and flood control.

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Wikidata facts

Elevation: 4
Image: ThreeGorgesDam-China2009.jpg
Height: 181
Width: 115
Length: 2335

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Commons category: Three Gorges Dam
Commons gallery: Three Gorges Dam
date of official opening: 2003-00-00
annual energy output: 103.65
hydraulic head: 80.6
watershed area: 1000000
discharge: 116000
inception: 2003-00-00
native label: 三峡大坝
nominal power output: 22500
capacity factor: 45.0
service entry: 2003-00-00

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Article

The Three Gorges Dam, officially known as Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River near Sandouping in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downstream of the Three Gorges. It is also the world's largest power station by installed capacity (22,500 MW); it generates 95±20 TWh of electricity per year on average, depending on the amount of precipitation in the river basin. After the monsoons of 2020, the dam produced nearly 112 TWh in a year, breaking the record of 103 TWh set by the Itaipu Dam in 2016.

The dam's body, 185 meters high and 2,309 meters wide, was completed in 2006. The power plant became fully operational in 2012, when the last of the 32 main water turbines in the underground plant began production. The last major component of the project, the ship lift, was completed in 2015.