--FILE--In this aerial view, the Baihetan hydropower station, the world's second-largest hydropower project, is under construction in Dazhai town, Qiaojia county, Zhaotong city, southwest China's Yunnan province, 21 April 2018. The world's second-largest hydropower project using China's domestically made equipment will help the country export its construction and equipment know-how around the world, analysts said. The Baihetan hydropower station is located on the Jinsha River, on the upper section of the Yangtze River straddling Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. It will use 16 turbines made by Chinese companies, each with a capacity of 1 gigawatts, according to Tu Yangwen, an official with China Three Gorges Corp, the project's contractor. The Baihetan hydropower plant is expected to enter operation by 2021, and will be second only to the Three Gorges Dam in terms of total installed capacity, according to China Three Gorges Corp. Baihetan is expected to generate more than 60 terawatt hours of electricity per year, around two-thirds of Beijing's consumption in 2015. Thermal power generating capacity of more than 62 tWh and 19.68 million metric tons of coal will be replaced every year after the hydropower station starts operation. "China's wide-ranging know-how and experience when it comes to the construction of hydroelectric plants is second to none given the nation had already installed 313 gW by the end of 2017, " said Joseph Jacobelli, a senior analyst of Asian utilities at Bloomberg.
