The Laxiwa Dam () is an
arch dam
An arch dam is a concrete dam that is curved upstream in plan. The arch dam is designed so that the force of the water against it, known as hydrostatic pressure, presses against the arch, causing the arch to straighten slightly and strengthen ...
on the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
in
Qinghai
Qinghai (; alternately romanized as Tsinghai, Ch'inghai), also known as Kokonor, is a landlocked province in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It is the fourth largest province of China by area and has the third smallest po ...
Province, northwest
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. It is downstream of the
Longyangxia Dam
The Longyangxia Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam at the entrance of the Longyangxia canyon on the Yellow River in Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, China. The dam is tall and was built for the purposes of hydroelectric power generation, irrig ...
and upstream from the
Lijiaxia Dam. The main purpose of the dam is
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
power generation and it supports the largest station in the Yellow River basin. The facility generates power by utilizing six
turbines
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful Work (physics), work. The work produced by a turbine can be used ...
, each with a generating capacity of , totaling to a capacity of .
Construction
By the beginning of 2004, the Yellow River was diverted and in September of that year, excavation on the dam's abutment began. In April 2006, the first concrete was cast and on May 18, 2009, the power plant's first two generators were commissioned. A total of of earth and rock were excavated from the dam site.
See also
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List of power stations in China
The following page lists some power stations in mainland China divided by energy source and location.
Coal
Nuclear
Hydroelectric
Solar
Tide
Wind
By location
The following pages list the major power stations ...
*
List of tallest dams in the world
This is a list of the tallest dams in the world over in height. The tallest dam in the world is the Jinping-I Dam, an arch dam in China at . The tallest embankment dam and second tallest dam in the world is the Nurek Dam in Tajikistan. The tall ...
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List of tallest dams in China
The tallest dams in China are some of the tallest dams in the world. Nearly 22,000 dams over in height – about half the world's total – have been constructed in China since the 1950s. Many of the tallest are located in the southwestern part ...
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List of dams and reservoirs in China
Dams and reservoirs in China are numerous and have had a profound effect on the country's development and people. According to the World Commission on Dams in 2000, there were 22,104 dams over the height of operating in China. Of the world's tot ...
References
{{Yellow River dams
Hydroelectric power stations in Qinghai
Amdo
Buildings and structures in Qinghai
Dams on the Yellow River
Dams in China
Dams completed in 2009
Guide County