The Longyangxia Dam is a concrete

arch-gravity dam An arch-gravity dam or arched dam is a dam with the characteristics of both an arch dam and a gravity dam. It is a dam that curves upstream in a narrowing curve that directs most of the water pressure against the canyon rock walls, providing the f ...

at the entrance of the Longyangxia canyon on the

Yellow River The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...

Gonghe County Gonghe County (; ), also known as Kungho, is a county of Qinghai Province, China under the administration of Hainan Prefecture. The seat of Gonghe County is in the town of Qabqa. Demographics In 2006, 55% of the population were Tibetans, with ...

Qinghai Province 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 pop ...

, China. The dam is tall and was built for the purposes of hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, ice control and

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

. The dam supports a 1,280 MW power station with 4 x 320 MW generators that can operate at a maximum capacity of 1400 MW. Controlling ice, the dam controls downstream releases to reservoirs lower in the river, allowing them to generate more power instead of mitigating ice. Water in the dam's 24.7 billion m3 reservoir provides irrigation water for up to of land. The dam is composed of its main body and a gravity pier and secondary dam on both its left and right flank. The dam's service

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure th ...

contains two wide gates that discharge water into two and long chutes. Downstream discharges are also controlled by a similar single-chute middle outlet and the lower

outlet works A gatehouse, gate house, outlet works or valve house for a dam is a structure housing sluice gates, valves, or pumps (in which case it is more accurately called a pumping station). Many gatehouses are strictly utilitarian, but especially in the n ...

Photovoltaic power station

In 2013 a

solar photovoltaic A photovoltaic system, also PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to absorb and c ...

station was built with a nameplate capacity of 320 MWp (Phase I), covering . An additional 530 MW_p (Phase II) was completed in 2015, covering further , making Longyangxia Dam Solar Park, with 850 MW_p capacity, one of the largest photovoltaic power stations in the world. The solar power station is integrated with the hydroelectric power station. The park is coupled to one of the hydroelectric turbines, which automatically regulate the output to balance the variable generation from solar before dispatching power to the grid. This limits the problems connected to variable solar generation while helping to conserve water.

References

{{Yellow River dams Hydroelectric power stations in Qinghai Dams in China Dams on the Yellow River Arch-gravity dams Dams completed in 1992 Photovoltaic power stations in China 1992 establishments in China Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture

Photovoltaic power station

See also

References