Owen Au & Ryan Wu
Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project, which broke ground in July, is set to become the world’s largest hydrpower installation.
Officials see it as a key pillar of the PRC’s energy sovereignty and a step toward implementing the “total national security concept” and the “new energy security strategy.”
Beijing wants renewable energy sources in western China to power a surge of computing power and data centers as it seeks technological primacy, something Tibet could assist with.
Challenges persist, and the project has no fixed deadline in sight. Tibet’s remote location, extreme climate, and low level of development make integrating the region as a “national data hub node.”
On July 19, Premier Li Qiang (李强) launched construction of the Yarlung Tsangpo hydropower project (雅鲁藏布江下游水电工程) in Nyingchi in the Tibet Autonomous Region, hailing it as the “project of the century” (世纪项目) (CCTV, July 19). For the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Yarlung project is an unprecedented engineering and energy gambit. At an estimated Renminbi (RMB) 1.2 trillion ($168 billion)—five times the cost of the Three Gorges Dam (三峡大坝)—it is slated to be the world’s largest hydropower installation (Xinhua, July 19). The design calls for five cascading stations burrowed into Tibet’s Great Bend gorge that, once completed, could generate up to 300 billion kWh per year, enough to power the homes of 300 million people (China Energy News, August 9, 2021; Ta Kung Pao, January 7).
International observers have warned that the Yarlung project could serve as a “water weapon” against downstream India and Bangladesh (The Guardian, July 21). This perspective often overlooks the its domestic logic as part of the PRC’s aims to become an “energy powerhouse” (能源强国) (CCTV, April 13, 2022). Under these ambitions, the Yarlung project is intertwined with the country’s surging demand for computing power amid intensifying global technology competition.
Beijing Sees Hydropower as Grid Stabilizer
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