hydroelectric

China has broken records by expanding its wind and solar capacity. Now going all out with pumped hydroelectric storage

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In December 2020, Xi Jinping, the president of China, announced that the country he leads would reach 1,200 GW of installed wind and solar capacity by 2030. He was wrong. China reached this figure in July 2024and, therefore, no less than six years before the deadline set by the Government. At the end of 2025, the accumulated capacity of these two energy sources exceeded 1,840 GW, making them those responsible for 47.3% of China’s electrical capacity. That was the first time wind and solar energy They surpassed coal and gas in the Chinese electricity mix. However, the rapid expansion of these renewable energy sources has placed China in a scenario in which it is crucial to find a way to integrate them efficiently into the country’s energy system. Wind and solar energy have an intermittent nature, so it is essential to develop large-scale storage infrastructure and a network that is capable of managing the peaks and valleys of supply in an automated way. Pumping is the most efficient way to store energy on a large scale To solve this challenge, China has launched a strategy that proposes transforming energy storage into a national priority. One of the solutions it is deploying is installing large battery systems at a record pace. In 2025 its battery storage capacity grew by 75% compared to 2024. However, in this area its biggest bet is pumped hydroelectric storage. At the moment China has more pumping projects underway than all the other countries in the world combined. Their plan is to use excess solar and wind energy to pump water into elevated reservoirs and release it when electricity is needed. Pumped hydroelectric plants fit very well in mountainous countries because they allow you to take advantage of uneven terrain to move large masses of water between two reservoirs or deposits at different heights. China currently has more pumping projects underway than all other countries in the world combined. The excess energy can be used to pump water from the lower reservoir to the upper one using a hydraulic pump, and to recover that energy it is only necessary to let it fall back into the lower reservoir from the upper one so that it drives a hydraulic turbine. Pumped hydroelectricity has been used for more than a century, but it remains a very attractive technology. In fact, it is currently one of the energy storage systems more efficient large scale. The largest facility of its kind in Europe it is the pumped hydroelectric plant of the Cortes–La Muela complex (La Muela I + La Muela II), on the Júcar river (Valencia). If we stick to pumped hydro storage, China aims to add about 100 GW in five years compared to the current 59 GW. If it achieves its purpose, this technology will become the basis of its long-term storage system in this country. Still, the Government has also committed to more rapidly expanding battery storage. At the end of 2025 the accumulated capacity reached 136 GWwhich multiplies by 40 the level proposed by the previous five-year plan. Lithium-ion batteries clearly dominate this market, but China is investigating alternative technologiessuch as sodium-ion batteries, compressed air batteries, flywheels or gravitational storage. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Volt Insight Xataka | China dominates the world of renewable energy, but it has an Achilles heel: it depends on the West more than it admits

is building a 2,100 MW mega hydroelectric plant in Tibet

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China has put the turbo into the energy transition towards renewables and for example, a button: only in 2025 will it install more wind electric capacity that the United States throughout its history. That same milestone but with solar panels He achieved it in 2023. But renewable energies have their problems and one of their critical points is storage: what to do with that surplus on a sunny and/or windy day? The answer normally (if there is no storage system) it’s wasting it. But China is also a specialist in mega-constructions, due to its colossal size, its blazing speed of construction or even for setting up facilities in places as inhospitable as a solar park on the tibetan plateau. If we combine these two ingredients we have the next great Chinese recipe: a mega hydroelectric plant in the middle of the Tibetan plateau. The project. Two years ago, the state-owned Yalong River Hydropower Development Company laid the foundation stone for the future Daofu hydropower plant, in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan (southwest China). This plant will have a total installed capacity of 2,100 MW and its infrastructure will consist of two reservoirs, a forced conduction system, an underground plant excavated in the rock and a surface substation. When operational, it will be the highest-altitude pumped hydroelectric power station in the world, surpassing by 700 meters the record-holder, the Yamzho Yumco Lake Pumped Hydroelectric Power Plant in the Xizang Autonomous Region. how to explain Xinhua, China’s official news agency. Why is it important. Fundamentally, because it solves the main bottleneck of renewables. Daofu is integrated into the Yalong River clean energy ecosystem, with a current operational capacity of 21,000 MW between hydro, solar and wind and with plans to reach 78,000 MW in 2035. Without mass storage, a significant part of that energy would be wasted or destabilize the network. On the other hand, it shows that it can be built in extreme conditions and its technical advances will serve to accelerate projects with similar characteristics. Finally, and hand in hand with the global energy transition, China takes a giant step in the global race for storage: it closed 2024 with 58 GW of installed pumping capacity, as the absolute world leader, and plans to overcome 120GW in 2030. Context. The production of renewable energy is becoming increasingly more affordable and simpler thanks to the democratization and evolution of technologies, but the Gordian knot continues to be storage: not wasting energy when more than necessary is produced and, conversely, how to cover demand peaks when there is no wind or sun. Storage is essential for a real energy transition and few countries are interested in it going well like China, which is the largest consumer of energy of the planet and world leader in renewable electricity production. Batteries are a growing solution, but pumped hydroelectric storage remains the technology with the highest cumulative installed capacity in the world and the most convenient to store large volumes of energy for hours. In figures. We have already glimpsed some of the overwhelming data of this mega-construction, but it leaves our jaws open: 2,100 MW of installed power, distributed among six reversible turbine-generators of 350 MW each. A quick comparison: Daofu represents almost 7% of all the wind power installed in the Spanish statebut concentrated in a single installation. 12.6 GWh of daily storage, which according to Xinhua meets the needs of two million households in Sichuan. 3 TWh of electricity generation per year, combining charge and discharge cycles. Between the upper and lower reservoir there is a difference in level of 760.7 meters, according to the construction company PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation. The project investment is 15.1 billion yuan (at current exchange rates, about 1.84 billion euros). What is it like to build at 4,300 meters. At that altitude, the air available to breathe can cause hypoxia (less oxygen available) and temperatures plummet beyond freezing, a challenge for both working personnel and machinery. On the other hand, building in such remote areas represents a logistical challenge in terms of a lack of infrastructure, something to take into account when moving heavy material such as steel or concrete. Or to manufacture it there. As Yu Chuntao, project director of the PowerChina project, explains, to Global Times“The design, construction and manufacturing of electrical equipment for the Daofu project is highly exploratory and challenging” and that the advances made there “will greatly boost the design and manufacturing of pumping station equipment in China.” In Xataka | China needed space to power millions of homes, so it installed 2,934 huge solar panels in the open sea In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels Cover | CGTN

China has already begun to install the largest hydroelectric turbine of its kind. It is a technical pulse in Himalaya

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Imagine to move a 32 -ton steel piece by a mountain road, fit it in a rock excavated and fix it with a tolerance of just a few millimeters. That is the challenge that China has just assumed in the Tibet (Xizang): mount the turbine IMPULSE more powerful ever built. A month ago we already counted how this machine was designed and how it was transferred to a remote enclave. Now it starts the really difficult: the assembly, with gigantic cranes, digital simulations and millimeter precision in a confined space. The first major component is already in place. As Global Times collectsthe assembly began with a key piece: a section of the water distribution ring, the structure that will channel the flow to the turbine. The installed section weighs 32.1 tons, is 3.1 m in diameter and 95 mm thick wall, and was placed with millimeter precision in the machine pit by a 400 -ton crane. That first lace marks the formal start of the installation and opens the nucleus nucleus assembly phase. A giant turbine, designed with watchmaking precision. The turbine of Datang Zala project It is an impulse unit of 500 MW – the most powerful of its kind. According to Xinhuahas been developed entirely in China by Harbin Electric Machinery. Integrate 21 hydraulic “spoons”, 6.23 m of outer diameter, 1.34 m thick and about 80 tons of weight. Altitude, space and steel. Move and fit each element in a large -altitude cannon forces fragment structures. The distribution ring (28 m × 25.2 m × 4 m) sE divided into 13 sections for transport and assembly. The equipment uses BIM/3D modeling, 1: 1 scale models in the highlands and a welding process with high strength steel developed with universities, to reduce maneuvers and ensure structural integrity. A key piece in the country’s energy strategy. Datang Zala is Tibet’s first hydroelectric project at 1 million kW leveland will be integrated as a relevant node of the network in western China. Its construction seeks to strengthen the renewable energy offer in the region and integrate a complex geographical area into the national system. Official data indicate that China adds More than 94,000 dams and 436 GW of installed hydroelectric capacity. The annual generation is 1.42 billion kwh, 57% of all its renewable production. Datang Zala fits that pattern: large infrastructure to ensure supply, reduce coal and stabilize the system with managerly hydraulics. Much work ahead. The installation of the turbine is only part of the process. Critical components, hydraulic connections and height operating tests are still missing. It is expected to start working in 2028. Of course, assembly and rehearsals will continue during the next months, and any deviation can delay the schedule. Images | Dongfang Electric | Datang Xizang Energy Development In Xataka | In Europe, gas and disused coal plants have unexpected suitors: technology companies

Google has signed the largest hydroelectric agreement in history. You no longer know where to get more energy to feed your AI

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Google closed on July 15 A historical agreement With Brookfield Asset Management worth $ 3,000 million to access hydroelectric energy for 20 years. This is the largest corporate cleaning of the world in this modality, which will allow technology to access up to 3 gigawatts of hydroelectric power in the United States. The magnitude of the problem. Artificial intelligence has triggered the energy consumption of large technology to levels never seen. According to The International Energy Agencyfor 2030 the United States will consume more energy by processing data than by manufacturing aluminum, steel, cement and chemicals together. There are studies that indicate that data centers could consume 945 theravats of electricity time globally that same year. Although of course, the same agency also concluded that the energy consumption of AI It is overestimated. What includes the agreement. The initial contract covers two hydroelectric facilities in Pennsylvania: Holtwood and Safe Harbor, which Brookfield acquired between 2014 and 2015. These plants will initially provide 670 megawatts of power, but Google will have the option of expanding the agreement to the 3 gigawatts through future updates of the facilities. At the same time, the company will invest 25,000 million dollars in data centers in Pennsylvania and neighboring states over the next two years. Why now hydroelectric energy. While previously technological ones focused on wind and lots, now They look for “firm” renewable energy sourcesthat is, they provide constant supply regardless of the weather or time. Hydroelectric energy fits perfectly in this category. Besides, Trump’s recent legislation He has maintained fiscal credits for hydroelectric projects until 2036, while those of wind and plot will lose these incentives unless they are launched before the end of 2027. The energy career. Google is not alone in this desperate search for clean energy. Meta signed an agreement for Buy the production of a nuclear plant In Illinois for two decades. Microsoft, Amazon and other technological giants also They are closing similar contracts. The pressure is such that these direct agreements have become a way that technology funds to new generation capacity, thus relieving pressures on electricity prices at home. What comes after. Google Plan Expand this model beyond Pennsylvania towards the Middle Atlantic and the US western environment. The company has already signed other pioneer agreements during the last year, including Geothermal energy No carbon and advanced nuclear. He is also working with the country’s largest electricity operator to use AI and accelerate the process of connecting new energy sources to the network. The arrival of AI in our lives has overcome any energy forecastand now it is the great technological ones that have to guarantee a constant supply of their AI at any price if they want the business to be profitable. Cover image | Greg Bulla and Nuclear forum In Xataka | The AI has folded the price of an ultrarrao metal. The problem is that we need it to store renewable energy

This is the biggest hydroelectric bet in China

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In the middle of remote mountains, at 3000 meters of altitude, China follows configuring your electrical networks Towards an energy transition model. From Harbin, in the northeast of the country, a gigantic 80 tons turbine headed for Tibet left this week. Its destination: the Datang Zala hydroelectric plant, where the power of water will be transformed into electricity thanks to an unprecedented machine. Short. In a great official ceremony, the delivery of a large pelton -type impulse turbine was held with a unit capacity of 500 megawatts, designed and manufactured by Harbin Electric Machinery Company Limited, as He has reported The Xinhua state agency. The size is unique and striking: a diameter of 6.23 meters, made of martensitic stainless steel and has 21 precision kanglons. According to China Dailythe process took six years of research and development, and was tested in the National Laboratory of Hydroelectric Equipment. The definitive commitment. China is distinguished by developing infrastructure from Colossal scale either Unique as a technical levelbut this time it focuses on strengthening electrical networks in strategic areas and accelerating its carbon neutrality objective by 2060. According to South China Morning Postthe turbine will reach an efficiency of 92.6%, an increase of 1.6% compared to previous turbines, which will result in additional 190,000 kWh per day. The central will have two turbines and a total installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts, generating about 4,000 million kWh per year. Is it the most powerful? It depends on how it is measured. In terms of unitary capacity, this 500 MW impulse turbine is the most powerful of its kind in the world. However, it is not the most powerful if compared to the gigantic Chinese dams, that is, their set. On the one hand, highlight The Baihetan dam With the largest arc in the world and a total capacity of 16,000 MW, managing to supply 500,000 homes for a year. On the other hand, even more impressive, it is The three throats dam that with its 22,500 MW it holds the world installed capacity record. Of course, not without controversies: its environmental and geophysical impact has been such that has slightly altered the terrestrial rotation. Another factor: the location. The hydroelectric power plant is being built on the Yuqu river, a tributary of the NU River (Salween), In an area geographically rugged and with strong seismic activity. The water jump that will feed the turbine has a vertical unevenness of 671 meters, which makes this installation one of the few that take advantage of such a pronounced unevenness, ideal for impulse turbines such as the Pelton type developed by Harbin, As SCMP has developed. In addition, this is added the political context. The Tibet It is a region of historical tensions between the central Chinese authorities and the aspirations of local autonomy. Some voices see these types of projects as a way of strengthening Beijing’s strategic control over the territory, through economic development and energy infrastructure. Forecasts. The turbine is already on its way to its destination and it is expected that the plant enters into operation in 2028. It is not just a colossal machine: it is a declaration of intentions. Toe technology, unprecedented efficiency, and a clear commitment to hydroelectric domain in one of the most complex regions of the planet. Image | Unspash Xataka | In the twentieth century the pipelines were the key to the world. In the 21st century are the electrical networks and a country is winning them: China

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