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    China has started the world's biggest infrastructure project. A series of hydroelectric dams in Tibet that will generate more electricity than one fifth of the US's total capacity.
    Futurology

    China has started the world’s biggest infrastructure project. A series of hydroelectric dams in Tibet that will generate more electricity than one fifth of the US’s total capacity.


    I have to confess I'd never heard of the Yarlung Tsangpo River before, but I guess we all soon will. It will soon be harnessed by a dam constructed in the world's biggest ever infrastructure project. There is an infrastructure project with a similar price tag, the ISS, but it's in space, so I suppose it doesn't quite count as "world's" biggest infrastructure project in the same way.

    China's speed of electrification is truly breath-taking. In just one month (May 2025) China's installed new solar power equaled 8% of the total US electricity capacity.

    China begins construction of $167 billion mega dam over Brahmaputra in Tibet – The hydropower project, regarded as the biggest infrastructure project in the world, raised concerns in the lower riparian countries, India and Bangladesh.

    China has started the world's biggest infrastructure project. A series of hydroelectric dams in Tibet that will generate more electricity than one fifth of the US's total capacity.
    byu/lughnasadh inFuturology

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    14 Comments

    2. DonManuel on

      Tibet is not China, it’s an occupied territory. Tibetan people had no say about this and will not get most of the energy produced.

    3. vector_o on

      Are they gonna slow down. Earth’s rotation again? Always up to something those Chinese /j

    4. shryke12 on

      Tibet is a conquered country… this is like if Russia wins against Ukraine and a few years later you brag about the big projects Russia is doing in Ukraine.

      Also, China has actual literal concentration camps where they harvest human organs for the west. This increasing Chinese propaganda is interesting.

    5. breinbanaan on

      Fuck China, they’ll fuck up all the ecosystems surrounding the dam and all the people as well. Leave Tibet alone

    6. Disastrous-Form-3613 on

      This is a genius move by China, turning a geographical challenge into a massive advantage. A huge portion of their country is made up of mountains and high plateaus that are largely uninhabitable and unsuitable for traditional agriculture. For instance, it’s estimated that over 90% of the Chinese population lives on less than 40% of the land. However, these same mountainous regions, particularly the Tibetan Plateau, are the source of major rivers like the Yangtze and Yellow River, which have immense hydroelectric potential due to the significant changes in elevation.

    7. yeti_face on

      This is one of the most tectonically active and rapdily-uplifting places in the world due to the collision of India and Asia. These dams will have to hold up to earthquakes, landslides, and enormous glacier-related floods from upstream. Seems like a terrible idea from that standpoint.

    8. justbrowse2018 on

      Didn’t they recently start destroying the older damns they build on the other river I can’t spell?

    10. niberungvalesti on

      Americans are straight up just sour grapes about Chinese accomplishments because their own country is currently trying to roll itself back to the Gilded Age.

      These are huge accomplishments and demonstrates Chinas rise to power as America spirals. Is China a perfect country? Nope. Not even close. And they do horrendous stuff but it’s rich coming from America which is currently cycling news of a pedophiles list and a horrible prison with a cutesy name.

    12. nojan on

      How will this affect rivers downstream, there is a reason many countries have stopped building dams for electricity.

    13. oldwhiteoak on

      This is such a bad idea. The high himalayas have been experiencing freak floods due to entire glaciers collapsing. Massive dams have been swept away and whole neighborhoods wiped out. Needless to say dam failure greatly exacerbates the disaster. The Tsang Po is on an entirely different scale than those. Few have been but from the books/documentaries out there it is one of the most powerful rivers in the world, and a catastrophic failure like that would not only be bad for china, but also India and severely raise tensions between global powers.

      Why is this happening in that case? Large dams rarely make economic sense but they, being some of the most expensive infrastructure we make, allow for lots of graft and corruption.