hydropower project in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River

The Lower Yarlung Zangbo River Hydropower Project (hereinafter referred to as the "Lower Yarlung Zangbo Hydropower Project") is located in Nyingchi City, Tibet Autonomous Region. The project mainly adopts the development mode of cutting off the meander and diverting water through tunnels, and builds five cascade power stations with a total investment of approximately 1.2 trillion yuan. The project mainly focuses on the external power transmission and consumption, while also taking into account the local self-use demand in Tibet. The Lower Yarlung Zangbo Hydropower Project is large in scale, long in cycle and far-reaching in influence, and can be regarded as a century project.

The Yarlung Zangbo River is the highest-altitude river in the world, flowing through the longest and steepest canyon on Earth and possessing the richest untapped water resources in Asia. The section of the river where the Yarlung Zangbo Hydropower Project is located features a significant drop, making it a rare "treasure trove" of hydropower resources globally. The project is expected to have an installed capacity of approximately 60 million kilowatts, generating nearly 300 billion kilowatt-hours of clean, renewable, and zero-carbon electricity annually, sufficient to meet the annual electricity demands of over 300 million people. Once completed, the project will effectively reduce reliance on fossil fuels, playing a crucial role in China's pursuit of its "dual carbon" goals, addressing global climate change, and promoting low-carbon development worldwide. Through this project, the development of solar and wind energy resources in the surrounding areas will be significantly advanced, thereby forming a complementary clean energy pattern and further enhancing energy utilization efficiency.

The development of the Ya Xia Hydropower Project has undergone decades of in-depth research, fully considering the regional geological environment. The development plan has avoided high-risk areas of geological disasters and major geological disaster chains in the basin. During the construction process, geological disaster monitoring and systematic prevention and control will be continuously carried out to continuously improve the basin's disaster prevention and emergency response capabilities. After the project is completed, it can effectively reduce the rapid and deep erosion of the river valley by the river water, making the evolution of the river morphology gradually slow down and stabilize, and ultimately reduce the occurrence of geological disasters. In addition, the project adheres to the principle of ecological priority and will retain the original ecosystem to the greatest extent in accordance with the highest standards of the Chinese industry. Through measures such as ecological compensation and vegetation restoration, the project will form a set of ecologically restorative solutions with exemplary significance, providing systematic references for future projects.