China is home to the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by installed capacity.
The dam crosses the Yangtze River near Yichang in Hubei Province. Its generators have a combined installed capacity of 22,500 megawatts, a figure that made the project a defining landmark in modern hydropower. Construction began in 1994, and the final generating units entered service in 2012.
The project serves several purposes beyond electricity generation. Its reservoir supports improved navigation and provides flood-control capacity for parts of the Yangtze basin. The dam is sometimes confused with the world’s largest power station by annual electricity generation, a ranking that can vary by year because rainfall and river flows change. Its country, however, is unambiguous: China.