When the Three Gorges Dam – the largest hydroelectric dam in the world – was built it put a very large obstacle in the way of a trade route that had bee used for hundreds of years.
So, to solve the problem engineers devised a genius solution to install the world’s largest ship lift, capable of elevating vessels up to 3,000 tons along with a water volume equivalent to four Olympic-sized swimming pools.
China’s miracle of engineering – standing at a staggering 169 metres high, enabled passengers to bypass the slow and arduous five-stage ship locks, cutting travel time from four hours to just 40 minutes.
Opening in September 2016, the ship lift features a ship basin nearly 122 metres long by 18 metres wide and climbs a vertical distance of 113 metres – similar to the height of a 40-storey building.
Using four sets of symmetrically arranged drive mechanisms using gears and racks, the chamber is rigidly supported meaning the water does not tilt or sway, minimising the risk of the chamber overturning.
Huang Xing, a senior executive at Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co, the manufacturer of the lift, told the Global Times: “Furthermore, we have implemented buffer and damping mechanisms in the ship chamber to absorb impacts and vibrations.
“This means that even in the event of an earthquake while the ship lift is operating, the seismic forces will be transmitted to the tower columns, instead of causing the chamber to fall or any major accidents.”
According to The Kids Should See This, the lift cost an eyewatering $37 billion (£29.3 billion) to build.
Completed in 2006 and full operational by 2012, the Three Gorges Dam generates 95±20 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity per year on average. Yet, after heavy monsoon rains in 202, the dam produced nearly 112 TWh in a year, breaking the previous world record set by the Itaipu Dam in South America.
Each of the state-of-the-art main water turbines has a capacity of 700 MW. Combining the capacity of the dam’s 32 main turbines with the two smaller generators (50 MW each) that provide power to the plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 22,500 MW, with minimal greenhouse gas emissions.
Made of concrete and steel, the dam is 2,353 metres long and 185 metres above sea level at its top. Its construction required the use of 463,000 tonnes of steel – enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers – and moved about 103 million cubic metres of earth.
As a bonus, the dam reduces the likelihood of flooding of the Yangtze River downstream, that have killed millions of people on the Yangtze Plain.
However, its construction did displace more than 31 million people and flooded several ancient and culturally significant sites. It has also increased the risk of landslides in some areas.
