Yunnan's largest hydroelectric dam starts power generation

The largest hydroelectric project on the Upper Mekong River Basin, the Nuozhadu dam, has officially began generating power.

The US$9.6 billion project broke ground in 2004 and will be China's fourth largest hydropower plant when finished in 2014.

The embankment dam rises 261.5 meters above the Mekong River, or Lancang River in Chinese.

Construction on the dam is not complete and only one of a planned nine 650 megawatt generators is currently in operation.

When fully operational the power plant will produce an estimated 24,000 gigawatts of electricity.

Much of the electricity will be sent to larger, more energy-hungry cities on the east coast. Some of the power generated by the dam will be sold to Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

The reservoir behind the dam began filling last year. When completely full, the new Nuozhadu reservoir will have a surface area of 320 square kilometers and hold water equivalent to 11 Dianchi lakes.

Project engineers at the power plant's September 6 opening ceremony said energy generated by Nuozhadu will save more than nine million tons of coal per year.

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