世界最大清洁能源走廊全面建成！

12月20日，金沙江白鹤滩水电站最后一台机组顺利完成72小时试运行，正式投产发电。至此，世界技术难度最高、单机容量最大、装机规模第二大水电站——白鹤滩水电站全部机组投产发电。

The Baihetan hydropower station, the world's second-largest in terms of total installed capacity, went fully operational Tuesday in the upper section of the Yangtze River in southwest China, according to China Three Gorges Corporation.

Four of them -- Wudongde, Baihetan, Xiluodu, and Xiangjiaba -- are located on the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze River, while the other two -- Three Gorges Dam and Gezhouba -- are on the middle section of the Yangtze. Collectively, they account for about one-fifth of China's total hydropower installed capacity, forming a 1,800-km-long clean energy corridor that also plays a major role in flood control, shipping, water resources utilization, and ecological security in the Yangtze River Basin.

With a total installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts, Baihetan is second only to the Three Gorges Dam project in the central Chinese province of Hubei. The hydropower station will generate an average of more than 62.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year, sufficient for the annual electricity consumption of approximately 75 million people.

"Baihetan signifies a major breakthrough in China's high-end equipment manufacturing, as it is equipped with 16 home-grown hydro-generating units, each with a capacity of 1 million kilowatts, the largest single-unit capacity in the world," said Lei Mingshan, chairman of China Three Gorges Corporation.

The full operation of Baihetan is of great significance to China's shift in energy structure, the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and the coordinated development of the regional economy in the country, Lei added.

Eddie Rich, CEO of the International Hydropower Association, hailed Baihetan as a mega project that has overcome some of the most difficult technical challenges ever faced by hydropower engineers.

The successful completion of the project "represents technological advances across the whole lifecycle of hydropower, from design and planning, to material science and equipment manufacturing, and construction technologies and intelligent management," said Rich.

Baihetan, which straddles the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, is located in a region with fragile ecological conditions and which is prone to geographic disasters. Environmental protection had been high on the agenda during its construction. Projects such as ecological restoration of the Heishui River habitat, stratified intake facilities and botanical gardens, were implemented to build an ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, according to China Three Gorges Corporation.