World’s Tallest Dam Begins Power Generation in China
China’s Shuangjiangkou Hydropower Station, home to the world’s tallest dam at 315 meters (1,033 feet), connected its first turbine unit to the national grid on June 26, marking a major milestone in the country’s push toward carbon neutrality. The first of four 500 MW units is now generating power on the Dadu River in Sichuan Province, with the remaining three units expected to come online by the end of 2026, according to CCTV News.
A Landmark in Hydropower Engineering
Situated in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, spanning Barkam City and Jinchuan County, the Shuangjiangkou dam is a gravel-soil core rockfill structure that required over 46 million cubic meters of earth and rock fill. As Sichuan Online reported, if the fill material were stacked into a wall one meter in width, height, and length, it would stretch around the Earth’s equator.
The station, operated by state-owned China Energy Investment Corporation (CHN Energy), is a national key energy project under China’s 14th Five-Year Plan. With a total installed capacity of 2,000 MW (2 GW) and an annual generation capacity of 7.7 billion kWh, it is designed to provide clean electricity to the southwestern region while supporting China’s “dual carbon” goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.
Beyond the World’s Tallest Dam
The Shuangjiangkou project holds multiple world and national records beyond its dam height. According to Sichuan Online, these include the highest geostress underground powerhouse among China’s completed projects, the world’s largest-capacity hydraulic hoist for spillway gates, the world’s largest cross-section discharge tunnel, and the world’s largest variable-section vortex shaft currently under construction. The station’s turbine water head variation of 80 meters and maximum flood discharge head of 250 meters are both world-leading.
Liu Haiyang, Director of the Shuangjiangkou Engineering Construction Office at CHN Energy, confirmed that the first unit is now operational and the team is “racing at full speed” to commission the remaining three units within the year. After full-capacity operation, the station’s annual power generation will reach 7.7 billion kWh, contributing significantly to China’s carbon targets.
Systemic Benefits for Sichuan’s Grid
As the controlling upstream reservoir and “dragon-head” station for the entire Dadu River cascade development system, Shuangjiangkou offers benefits that extend far beyond its own generation capacity. The reservoir, with a total storage capacity of 2.9 billion cubic meters — equivalent to approximately 203 West Lakes — has annual regulation capability. Once operational, it will provide an average annual power gain of 6.6 billion kWh to downstream cascade hydropower stations.
This regulation capacity is particularly significant for Sichuan Province, which relies heavily on hydropower and faces grid stability challenges. The project will improve the province’s peak-shaving and frequency-regulation capabilities while optimizing the power system’s energy structure. It will also raise flood control standards across the entire Dadu River basin, serving as an important flood control barrier on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Environmental Considerations
While the project is celebrated as an engineering marvel, it has not been without environmental concerns. According to the Baidu Baike entry on the Shuangjiangkou project, the dam inundates spawning grounds for endemic fish species such as Schizothoracinae and Sisoridae, disrupting migration patterns. The reduced flow velocity in the reservoir area also decreases the river’s self-purification capacity, potentially lowering water quality.
The reservoir, at its design water level, involves relocating approximately 237 households (1,152 people) across four villages in Jinchuan County, with inundation of farmland, orchards, and forestland. These trade-offs reflect a broader tension in China’s development model between rapid infrastructure expansion and ecological preservation.
A Boost to Carbon Goals
With the commissioning of Shuangjiangkou, CHN Energy now operates nearly 15,000 MW (15 GW) of hydropower and new energy capacity in the Dadu River basin, delivering over 60 billion kWh of clean energy annually. This is equivalent to saving approximately 17 million tons of coal and reducing CO₂ emissions by about 46 million tons per year.
The Shuangjiangkou project alone is expected to replace 2.96 million tons of coal consumption and reduce CO₂ emissions by 7.18 million tons annually once fully operational. China currently has over 94,000 dams with a total storage capacity of approximately 1 trillion cubic meters, leading the world in dam types, dam numbers, high-dam counts, and hydropower installed capacity.
What’s Next
The dam itself has been built to 260 meters — sufficient for power generation — but will continue rising to its full design height of 2,510 meters elevation by 2027, adding another 55 meters. With three more turbine units slated for commissioning by the end of 2026, the Shuangjiangkou Hydropower Station is poised to become a cornerstone of China’s clean energy transition, demonstrating how mega-engineering projects are being deployed in service of the country’s ambitious climate targets.