At the remote, mountainous frontier where the mighty Mekong carves the border between Myanmar and Laos, planners have sketched the outline of a mega dam. It would be the largest hydropower project ever built on the river’s mainstream outside China, but analysts suspect the study into it may matter more than the dam itself. A 34-month joint feasibility study for the 2,790-megawatt project was agreed on July 4 during Myanmar President Min Aung Hlaing’s state visit to Vientiane. Officials from both...
Chinese geologists have determined that an active fault line directly beneath the world’s largest hydropower project poses a threat to the mega dam now being built on Tibet’s Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River. The scientists said a fracture in the Earth’s crust in the eastern Himalayan region would significantly affect the integrity of the massive hydropower project’s infrastructure. In a paper published last month in the Chinese-language journal Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology,...
The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) projects that weaker wind and hydropower output, combined with rising demand for air conditioning, could open a generation gap of nearly 18 TWh (terawatt hour) over a period of one year to June 2027
Despite several potential benefits, local communities are opposing the subcontinent’s largest planned dam on the Siang river. Why is there resistance, and what does the government need to do build trust?