The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 885 Clean Energy Corridor
Weng Yongqiang remembers very clearly that he followed Soviet experts to design the Sanmenxia Water Conservancy Project. He climbed mountains and waded through water, overcame numerous difficulties, and finally completed the design. He then participated in the construction of the Sanmenxia Water Conservancy Project.

When he first participated in the design, he was only 17 years old. By the time the first unit of the Sanmenxia Hydropower Station started generating electricity, he was 36 years old when he left the Sanmenxia Hydropower Station.

Then he went to the southwest and participated in the design and construction of water conservancy projects in the southwest.

He has been working for 40 years.

China also went from learning how to design and build water conservancy projects from the Soviets to now being able to independently design and build large-scale water conservancy projects.

Over the past 15 years, China has built a large number of water conservancy projects, achieved a large number of results, and is leading the world.

China even designs and builds reservoirs and hydropower stations overseas.

Although he is about to turn 60, Weng Yongqiang is full of passion for work.

Yes, Weng Yongqiang believes that as long as the motherland needs him, he can still work healthily for another 20 years, until he is 80 years old.

Liu Tao smiled and didn't do anything more.

If you ask the older generation to take a rest, they will definitely not want to do so. They will feel uncomfortable all over and will soon develop various problems.

Liu Tao and Weng Yongqiang walked towards the dam. Like the Xiangjiaba Dam, a first-level vertical ship lift was installed on the left bank with a maximum lifting height of 114.2 meters. It can accommodate a 2*500-ton one-top-two-barge fleet, or a 1000-ton one-top-one-barge fleet. It only takes 15-ton ships 5 minutes to pass the dam, which is much faster than the average -hour passing time of the Three Gorges ship lock.

Of course, this does not mean that the ship passing design capacity of the four major hydropower stations on the Jinsha River is more advanced than that of the Three Gorges Ship Lock, but because the two have different ship navigation requirements. The planned and designed navigation capacity of the Jinsha River is for 1000-ton ships, while the Three Gorges is different. The planned and designed navigation capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is for 10000-ton ships.

The next day, Liu Tao left the Xiluodu Hydropower Station and came to the Baihetan Hydropower Station.

At present, the first batch of units of Baihetan Hydropower Station has not yet started generating electricity. It is estimated that it will take about three to four months before the first batch of units can start generating electricity.

The Baihetan Hydropower Station is located in Ningnan County, Sichuan Province and Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province. The normal water level of the reservoir is 825 meters, with a corresponding storage capacity of 206 billion cubic meters. The underground plant is equipped with 16 units with an installed capacity of 1600 million kilowatts and an average annual power generation of 602.4 billion kilowatt-hours.

After the Baihetan Hydropower Station is fully completed, it will submerge 2.2 mu of cultivated land and 10.2 mu of forest land, and relocate tens of thousands of people.

The entire Baihetan Hydropower Station rises from the ground and is built against the mountain. The steep mountain canyons are shrouded in clouds and mist. The seven cable cranes standing quietly on both sides of the mountain are like seven fairies descending to the earth. These are seven 30-ton cable cranes, specially used for lifting concrete materials for the Baihetan Hydropower Station dam.

The chief engineer of the Baihetan Hydropower Station is Sun Dahong, who is 65 years old this year. Sun Dahong is also a current academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. In 1958, the country planned to build a super-large hydropower station in Baihetan, and Czechoslovak experts provided technical assistance. At that time, Sun Dahong was the backbone of the technical force.

Unfortunately, the two sides parted ways in 1961, the preliminary work of the Baihetan Hydropower Station was stopped, and the survey team withdrew.

Sun Dahong participated in all the work at Baihetan and was transferred to the Ministry of Water Resources and Electric Power in the 70s.

Panshan Group started the construction of four major hydropower stations on the Jinsha River and approached Sun Dahong. Sun Dahong resolutely chose to accept the position of chief designer of the Baihetan Hydropower Station, formed a survey and design team, and finally completed the survey and design work of the Baihetan Hydropower Station, and was appointed as the chief engineer of the Baihetan Hydropower Station. It was because of Sun Dahong's outstanding contributions in theory and engineering at the Baihetan Hydropower Station and the Three Gorges Hydropower Station that Liu Tao recommended Sun Dahong as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Similarly, this year he also recommended Ye Xianggao and Weng Yongqiang as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. These people are all talented and knowledgeable.

After inspecting the Baihetan Hydropower Station, Liu Tao took a helicopter to the Wudongde Hydropower Station. The total installed capacity of the Wudongde Hydropower Station is 1020 million kilowatts, and it is equipped with 12 hydropower generating units with a single unit capacity of 85 kilowatts.

On the dam, the clouds cleared and the rain stopped, and the warm winter sunshine cast a dazzling golden light. The maximum height of the dam here reaches 270 meters. It is a hyperbolic arch dam and also an extra-high arch dam.

The dam is the core structure of a hydropower station. During the pouring of dam concrete, the heat released by cement hydration will form a relatively high temperature inside the dam. If the temperature is not well controlled, cracks will appear in the concrete structure, thus affecting the safe operation of the dam.

In order to solve the problem of temperature cracks in the dam, the Wudongde Hydropower Station used low-heat cement concrete throughout the dam, and no temperature cracks have appeared since its construction.

The entire construction of the Wudongde Hydropower Station set eight world first records, which is absolutely remarkable.

When all the units of the Wudongde Hydropower Station are put into operation, the power generation in just one day will be able to meet the living electricity needs of 30 people for a whole year.

Just half a month ago, the first unit of Wudongde was officially put into operation to generate electricity.

The chief engineer of the Wudongde Hydropower Station is Liu Ming, the first graduate of Tsinghua University after the resumption of the college entrance examination. He was assigned to the Kunming Survey and Design Institute and quickly stood out. After joining the work, Liu Ming also pursued a master's degree in water conservancy and hydropower. In 1984, he served as the leader of the dam design team and in 1989 as deputy chief engineer. After the original chief engineer had problems, Liu Ming took over the heavy responsibility of deputy chief engineer. Liu Ming is only 35 years old this year, and can be said to be a young and promising man.

The four major hydropower stations on the Jinsha River, the Three Gorges Dam, and the Gezhouba Dam in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River will together form the world's largest clean energy corridor.

In two or three years, the four major hydropower stations on the Jinsha River will be able to generate 1800 to 2000 billion kWh of electricity annually, and almost all of this electricity will be supplied to the East China region. In addition, after the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the annual power generation will be 800 to 1000 billion kWh, and the Gezhouba Dam will generate 141 to 157 billion kWh of electricity, totaling about 3000 billion kWh of electricity per year, thus solving the current power supply difficulties faced by the East China region.

During the previous negotiations, provinces such as South China and East China had to agree. One important reason was that the development of these places relied on large-scale electricity transmission from the southwest, as well as the provision of steel and other production materials from other places, as well as a large amount of manpower and markets.

The development of China has always been a national chess game, which means that we should focus on the whole country rather than just the development of one place.

Liu Ming took Liu Tao to visit the dam and the office.

There are many computers in the office. Although the four major hydropower stations on the Jinsha River were designed relatively early, they were all designed with networking in mind. The operation is highly automated, and various monitoring instruments and equipment can be viewed on computers.

In order to develop this complete set of software, ten universities including Southwest Associated University, Tsinghua University, and Beijing University, in collaboration with Panshan Group's Computer Research Center and Software Research Center, took more than a year to develop it.

There are also independent servers here, mainly connected to the local area network, and a few are connected to the outside Internet.

In terms of telephones, in addition to landlines, mobile phones, and walkie-talkies, there are also satellite phones. This is to prevent special situations. For example, if the network cable or telephone line is cut, you can contact the higher-ups via satellite phones, report the situation, and ask for help.

(End of this chapter)