Casey, I attended the First International Meeting of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Working Group on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Ships, June 2008 in Oslo, Norway. I attended as a technical advisor to the US delegation. The US delegation was led by the USCG. The politics of meeting were as interesting as the technical issues. Third-world countries, led by China, demanded that all technologies developed by "First-world" countries be shared without restrictions. For instance, the company I worked for spent over $1M developing the hydrodynamics of a new tanker design. The Chinese delegation wanted full access to the design, and the raw data and the technologies used. But, I digress. At the meeting I learned that China's largest source of China's greenhouse house gas was not coal burning power plants, automobiles, or ships. The largest source was wood burning. Once outside of the suburban sprawl surrounding cities, wood was used for heat and cooking. The hydroelectric dams are not there to electrify the rural areas. They are there to provide power to China's cities. Bob
Xi's down-spiraling dictatorship makes me uneasy. He is currently headed toward a direct confrontation with the young women of China. They may not be able to safely critique the government in words, but by delaying marriage and forgoing children, they are expressing their view of the system in a very impactful manner.
Thank you, that's an interesting point I remember traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam in the 90s and just about everybody was cooking with charcoal. I imagine much of rural China is still the same way.
Burning wood doesn't contribute to climate change, it's short-cycle carbon, not fossil carbon. The carbon that is in wood comes from the air so if that carbon is returned back to the air in a couple years, there's not net increase in CO2 in the air.
Minute 11:08, year 2023 reflects a year where China was considering going to war, the point was made by a Chinese general who was sitting at the table during 3 Gorgers Dam inception process, and he told the others, 'If you build this dam, we will NEVER be able to make a preemptive strike due to the fact that this dam will have to be drained first because it will definitely be a retaliatory target due to its destructive potential on everything down stream including our military bases, and when we start to drain it, they will know that we are planning for the attack.'
3GD is definitely a military target now. I had somebody comment once that they were in China but were not allowed to travel to the dam as they were former U.S. military.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer I watched an interview here on TH-cam years back with a hydro-engineer of Chinese/German decent, I believe the last name was Yang or Lang, something like that, but he had given a 3 part interview with one of those parts being the topic of that dam being a target. I never saw it, I had watched part 1, clicked on part 2, (the target part), but they just played part 1 all over again. It was that engineer who had shared the story that I shared, as he was at that same meeting. Damn, I've got his name written down in several places, you know, so that I'd never forget it again, now where's the friggin' notes?!? How the hell is this trick suppose to work???
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Yeah, it did, I thought that I had posted it for you. Actually, I Googled his name which is Wang Weiluo, he has been an outspoken opponent of the 3GD. He made three videos of it doing an interview, that was where I got the story of the general's advise. Check him out, man, you'd really like the guy, he's very sharp, right up your alley.
Nice job on summarizing the tectonic situation that brings the earthquake risk to this area. You might want to look at some of the dams built in India, Nepal, and Pakistan that are also directly on top of the convergent plate boundary in the Himalayas.
China has a particularly nortorious reputation damming rivers. The head waters to the Mekong lie also in China and their treatment of water management as a national security issue has left SE Asia to struggle with their unannounced sequestration and releases, drying our or flooding the river. The Mekong’s fresh water fish populations have been decimated by climate and issues like these. Ironic, because salinification is destroying rice production in Vietnam and Thailand. China is dependent on imports.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer While plausible, my sense is the drive to build dams has more with the way their system of advancement works and has operated for decades. It’s an imperative for an official’s career. Alternately transferring water to the drier North has been an obsession for quite some time (N/S water transfer). The faith in dominating nature is long standing as is fulfilling the notions of now dead leaders like Mao.
From an electrical engineering standpoint the ability to move the power to where it can be used is as important to a hydro plant. These dams are so remote that the power lines would have a significant impact on overall efficiency - and also be really difficult to build and maintain. So the main reasons for the project may just be so they can hold the water hostage and use it to get concessions from the down stream countries.
Dams can suddenly fail for unknown reasons. Repeated series of unfortunate landslides over and over non stop can wipe out construction access roads to the interior mountains. Other unexpected issues in the country like floods and other weather modification failures may require more pressing attention. International money can be tight, loans defaulted; why - an imaginative person would find no end to ways a dam might be sidelined.
As you pointed out, this area is extremely remote, so it would be inconvenient at best for transporting any large amount of power to densely populated areas in China. In fact, the closest areas of major population are in India. The nearest major city in China is Chengdu, more than 800 km away across incredibly high relief mountains. The nearest city in Tibet is Lhasa, almost 400 km away.
@@pvbarbell1904 It is possible to build a high-voltage transmission line from the Yarlung-Zangbo River to Chengdu, but it would be extremely expensive and prone to landslides and earthquakes. The southeast corner of Tibet that the power line would have to cross is the one place that gets major monsoon rainfall.
@@bigaaronGood Lord, you have just stated your country's MAGA manifesto but I guess that it's okay for you but oh no, not for somebody else. I mean, how dare they build a dam in their own territory. What mean intellects you have.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer I'd be interested in your take on the Helene flooding. There seems to be some controversy over why it was so bad in select areas.
@@raykaufman7156 From what I have read, the flooding was so bad because of all the rain that preceded the passage of the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Also, there was an orographic effect as the storm moved up and over the mountains causing even more of the rain to be "wrung out". With that topography, there is not way to avoid a disaster with that much precipitation. The had a similar event over 100 years ago, but of course there was no I-40 and much of the other development was much sparser then.
I live about 100metres from the Mekong River in Phnom Penh. I've been here for over 30 years now and the Mekong is doing what it always does. It goes up in summer and down in winter. No major variations, it's different by a couple of metres up and down every year, seemingly randomly except for a correlation between the amount of snow melt from the Himalayas. Monsoon rain volume only has very localised effects. Most of the dams in the Mekong catchment are not on the Mekong mainstream, they're on tributaries. Release without notice has only happened a few times.... people have moved up hill a bit. At the peak of natural low land seasonal flooding there aren't cow corpses, legs akimbo or poor dead souls floating down stream. People have adapted... fishing is easier, rice growing is easier. There's the annual canoe race festival coming up next week. That's the river's peak. Summary: no change on the Mekong in The Kingdom of Wonder folks.
The hydrology in the region is subject to massive changes as the weather patterns shift. IIRC the northern leg of the Brahmaputra may see significant fall off, especially as glaciers fade into nothingingness. Monsoon activity on the Southern slopes will increase, but it’s the massive flood variety. Changing weather will rewrite the hydrology over the region, with some parts of water sheds receiving much more or much less water. When the water comes, it will come as deluge on average. I doubt any design can embrace these factors which are a moving target for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for another interesting video which raises important (and uncomfortable) questions about the construction itself and long term possible problems. One of the things I like most about your presentations is reading comments from such a variety of knowledgeable commentators. You should be pleased that your channel is so well watched by these folks! Keep bringing more originals and more follow ups. 👍🏻👏🤗
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is another dam that is causing conflict between 2 countries, Egypt and Ethiopia and maybe Eritrea and Somalia that could be the subject of a video.
I have a lot of minor questions about what you present. I am not a CE but an IT. One of the big ones is that regardless of the size of the dam, at some point, the amount of water going into the dam system equals the amount of water coming out unless used for irritation, which tends to evaporate. The length and the seismic seem like big negatives to the entire project, but perhaps after an earthquake, the tunnel could be relined. Thanks for sharing this topic.
Great video Casey! Another dam that is just completing its reservoir filling is the Blue Nile Dam in Ethiopia. This one is a huge geopolitical issue with Sudan and Egypt (downstream) and we haven't heard the last of this one. It has a reservoir twice the size of Lake Mead and power generation of 6000 MW.
@@mike_w-tw6jd Ethiopia is damming the Blue Nile River, which turns into the Nile River, which fed the Great Pyramid area, and still feeds Sudan, and Egypt, which has a strong military. And China financed a big chunk of it.
@@mike_w-tw6jd My point is that the source of the water is controlled by those upstream - when it never was before. We are talking about years' worth of water that is stopped up in huge reservoirs. No different than the Colorado River's flow that is viewed as in a constant 'drought' condition. The Colorado has never been in more than a two year 'drought' in its history. It has, however, been robbed of over 50% of its normal western mountainous water runoff by Colorado's eastern side, via tunnels, ditches and reservoirs. This, all done within our own country. Now, imagine this same condition over the span of three countries. THIS is what I was talking about.
This is a very interesting project. I hope they do build it. It reminds me of two other projects, one called Big Creek, and I think you would love to visit that dam, if you read the book first. I stopped at the National Park ranger station, picked up the book about how Big Creek was built by David Redinger, and then drove through Big Creek, Huntington Lake and the areas around Sequoia National Park. I went back to my RV, then read the book, and it showed the fascinating places I drove through, clueless to what it was. They have 3 large hydroelectric projects, that are connected with 12 foot diameter penstocks, and have over 1,900 feet elevation change between Huntington Lake and Big Creek, and another 2,000 feet between Big Creek and the hydroelectric plant downstream from Big Creek. Yes something to peak your interest. They also have pumped water storage at the site now. They built a 22 mile long water tunnel back in the 1920's! They had a railroad going to Big Creek at 4,500 foot elevation back in 1912! And even had steam trains running around Huntington Lake at about 6,500 feet elevation! The other project was built in Canada along the Columbia River back in the 1970's. It supplies a lot of water to the Columbia River during the summer. Before they had lots of water only in the spring run off time, then during the summer, they lacked the ability to generate full power all summer long. So the dams built in Canada is to store that spring run off, and release it all summer long. Much like this Chinese project can do. America actually spent $365 Million to pay for the dam built in Canada on the Columbia River, and it was paid for by the excess power they are now able to generate in Washington to make additional power in the summer. $365 Million in 1970 dollars is like $5 Billion today. I think that China can store a lot of water, then release it through the year, and that can actually help those downstream, avoid floods in the monsoon and then have more water in the dry season. As for Google Earth pictures of the ground, in California, they actually fly blimps to take the pictures over Los Angeles County, (they parked them overnight at Long Beach Airport, where I worked on the AC units, and know the security staff). Over the high mountains in China, they probably do not take new pictures often, they actually might be from space, not ground based pictures. So if you ever wondered how a "Satellite View" of your house, and you can see details like the roof of your RV, it is not a picture taken from space, but a blimp flying over your home at a slow speed, vibration free.
Bangladesh just denied China a money maker project and gave it to India due to the crappy quality of building materials from China. China was not happy
I guess you don't know jack. Google newly built airport and bridges they keep falling apart in India. China hasn't had these problem for over a decade. That was in the past.
I will work on getting my hands on current satellite information for this area. I haven't had any luck so far, unless the current Google maps images are current which shows no construction activity for such a project.
No project is completed in China without bribes being paid all the way along the build and supply chain. This results in no oversight and sub standard materials being used. What could go wrong? China is the home of TOFU construction.
My question is; who is using this power? I don't think there is a big population center/centers in China around that area, and transmitting power from single source is very uneconomical! So unless they are thinking of selling it to India or Nepal, are they planning on building a huge grid system back eastward?
China has made ultra high DC lines for other projects, far higher voltages than anywhere else in the world. They would use those to lessen transmission losses
There are satellite image providers who charge for current images. They are not what I would call inexpensive, but are useful to researchers and NGO's or Corporations.
I think you are correct in questioning chinese motives. Their government does little that is straight forward in purpose. Spending the money it would take to just get equipment into this area of the world and then building a damn there would probably not of itself be a great payoff in the short term, but controlling thier enemies, mainly India would add a great deal of value to the project aside from its electricity generation.
A dam system that far from their major cities close to the border of another country and in an earthquake area feels like a dangerous activity for the neighbors. Given that India and China also have conflicting interests in that area where the river leaves the Himalayas this is concerning. Arunachal Pradesh is at least in Google Earth marked as "contested" and to no surprise that river runs through there. China hasn't been showing that they are very concerned about environmental impact though, so this might be one of their efforts to get healthy water southeast China, but it's a horribly expensive and
Is it possible to build a "flow through" power station that does not restrict downstream water flow significantly? Almost a suspended dam concept? Im thinking something like an xxl fish weir (i think that's the right term for what I'm thinking of) that has inbuilt turbines.
If this new project doesn't need a huge reservoir since they can tunnel thru the mountain and use the large elevation difference for power production and if this was all done on the Chinese side then it wouldn't affect the river flow much since the water would be returned to the river before crossing the border. Canada has a generating station at Churchill Falls in Labrador with a 1200ft head and the power station is built inside a mountain.
Peter Zeihan says high-voltage transmission lines you can only “ship” electricity around 500 statue miles before line loss eats into your profit margins. What cities in the area can consume all the power these dams are going to produce?
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Hydro Québec carries power from Radisson QC to Montréal, about 1000km. It also sends power to New York state, and ans a DC line all the way to Boston, about 1500km. Some of the most upriver dams on the james bay project are about 599km from Radisson. Labrador also exports a huge chunk of power from Churchill falls to the Québec grid which is at least 1500km in straight line to Montréal. And while a dam in Tibet may not directly feed Shanghai or Beijing, feeding nearer popu;atio means power generated closer to the large cities won't need to also flow west to the cities nearer Tibet so more power goes to cities,
@@CaseyJones-Engineer According to Peter Zeihan if India wants they could pick off any tanker sailing by their backyard strangling China’s vast oil imports. Water for oil. You could spend an entire day catching up on Zeihan’s China videos he has made in the last four years.
The concern over providing water for another downstream countries should start on the Colorado River where we (i.e. the U.S.) seem to take water to use to build cities in the desert. Why is China held to a higher standard.
At 29.53263, 94.88651 Something has been built recently and in the last coulple of months has behind to span the river, but not sure if just another bridge or a dam. On east side of river, a "line"ecists all the way to flanc of mountain. On the Oct 14 pass, the span connects noth sides or river and it is looking mroe like a river. But the bridge itself appear metl deck, rapidly erected since june. (Oct 14 pass os partly obscured y clouds). On the sept 19 pass, the structure which was started from east going west was halfway cross river. (seen with sentinel eo browser). If a dam will be built there, the bridge just south of there will likely be flooded so it would make sense to build a new bridge likely next to the dam that will be buit. Or it could be a temporary steel bridge for construction trucks. But if they will dig a tunnel why not built it to the westn side of the bend to gain a bit more elevation difference? Other than that bridge, I have not seen anything obvious (Sentinel is lower quality than Google Earth) but much more frequent, though often just all white due to cloud coverage).
Look at the dam at Lake ☺️Isabella holding the current back. It’s sitting on an active quake and the quake has a crack that they could never fill with concrete they’ve tried.
Google maps does a lot of weird things for china so i would not use it as a source. Notice that the roads on the map and the ground do not line up, and in more urban areas, but a non standard amount. it's not a simple translation error, it's an intentional obfuscation done to appease the PRC.
It's a cover story for building the Arcs from the film 2012. This is literally that sub-plot of the film: Tell the locals they're building hydro power.
Throughout the world glaciers have been shrinking to the point of extinction. Tibet (the third pole) is not exempt from this phenomenon. Close to 25% of the world’s population (2 billion people) rely on this water.
I haven’t seen any indication that’s there’s anything wrong with three gorges. There was a bad satellite photo going around, but it didn’t show a correct image.
On water: unless you divert from one river to the next, or use it for agriculture where all water evaporates inseat of fliwing back to river, , a dam will yield the same amount of water downstream as it gets upstream, but , especally with a hydro dam, the goal is to have a constant flow of water do downstream would get more constant flow instead of flood causing flows followed by droughts. The problem here is dipliomatic because other countries have no say in how Chna manages its water so they are obviously affraid of what China might do.
All dams across water that has another country downstream are weapons. Playing with sluice gates is more effective than most bombs, either by starvation or inundation.
Projects that have the possibility of affecting other countries should come to international scrutiny, especially given China’s poor quality of these large projects.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer the mexicos sure do condemn the yanks and have done so for decades, without america doing anything but making the situation for mexico worse... this is why the world is tired of yankee hypocrisy.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer ...are the chinas 35 trillion $s in debt? or do the chinas have a 1.8 trillion $ annual budget deficit? or do the chinas have 15K gun murders/year. or old collapsing infrastructure? or election riots? or an economy growth of less than 2%?... more like america is in decline. where's the china decline part? your video is typical yankee non sense.
Half As Interesting, I believe, has a video about online Chinese maps. They are intentionally made with errors to limit the amount of intelligence that can be gathered from them.
I need to look into this more as it seems to be a prevalent issue. I wonder if Google does the same for Area 51 in the U.S. and other sensitive sights?
a diversion tunnel for that level of power generation would be absolutly Massive in bore scale in order to not have suction issues problems and cavatation erosion problems for more than 30 miles? it will be a problem before it is even finished nope i would cut a shelf around the inside corner of the canyion for feeding a stepped canal system generators one after other run of river setup and opverflow spillways back to the river on the left side with no impounded water really needed,
also because rivers are greats mining tools the final outflow from the canal would be over a lond strecth of riffle plates for heavy materials gathering and magnets for the iron.
China says it does a lot of things, puts some window dressing on it so they can say they have made process and in ten years they actually start working on it. This is actually a good thing, because the things China rushes are more often than not big fuck-ups. So let them boast and make big claims, and get some engineers to point out all kinds of pit falls (like dropping water 600 meters aint just a normal engineer problem, typical it’s around 14 psi per 10 meters so that’s 840 PSI and while that may not seem like a lot for micro engineers, when we talk about the metal gating for power plant, no joke a foot radius flow valve is 190 tons and what kind of hydrolis actuators are you going to need to open an close the valve. The other problem water at 840 PSI is murder on seals and seats. A leak one micron in diameter can dig a hole through just about everything. How do I know this, I used to work with HPLC and as long as you don’t touch the ferrels you are fine, but once you start disassembling this stuff it gets real tricky after 10 or openings and closing whether the next opening will hold. There are tricks like using a touch piece of clothe to kind of relaminate the ferrel, but all it takes is the tiniest nonconformity in the ferrel or seat and that’s it. I used to have a collection of old columns I would have and unpack material from one column and repack another. The thing about HPLC is its flow limited to about 0.25 cc and there are often antioxidants in the solvent. Not so in natural waterways, lots of oxide free radicals, at 840 PSI and once you get a leak, think of it like this MGH, = 10 x 600 = 6 kj/kg of water, so then you have heat plus pressure plus antioxidant the net result is going to be erosion. There’s another problem, a 42 foot water drop can create a near complete vacuum (+ pH20 at that temperature) on the upper control gate, if these are below water and you try to close these in an emergency the suction the gate experience may permanently damage the gate. Repairing flow control and impellers even in a 20° grade pipe is not fun. So if they don’t think it out ahead it may end up biting them in the ass.
it's interesting. For me id would make sence to have a little dam with a volume fpr several days up to a week or so. of cause on the high side of the River, then to built a tunnel. I would start with the tunnel at Xong Di Fan Dian, rhere is a bridge You will see on Google earth the elevation of the river is 2932 meter. there is a tunnel under construktion for street cars seen on nthe norter side going through the mountan at an elevation of 3570 m. 5 km north west. On the other side of the nountain 4.740 m away You can see teh other entrence for the road Tunel. it could have been even shorter... (4,230 km) If You would dig from the river at an elevation of 2930 m throug the Mabout 1616ountain into the same valley the Tulnnerl has a length of 16 km. Up from this point ist is easy to let the water flow in pipa or tunnel or open at one side of the valley at approximately constant hight. This can be done til the end of the little valley, that means you are only 9 km away from the river. Abd tha neans You can built a kanal fpr the water without any preassure un the level of the ricer there for about 90 km an You built the powaerplant into the rock at that point. So the pipe that has to resist heigh preassure kan be kept short. So you need two tunnels one of 16 km on of 10 km which are without preasure , and for the Rest an open canal. It seems to me that this can be done at a moderate cost and withaou building much of a dam. Lots of the Problems You are discussing would not exist as wateer can only be stord for a short amount of Time ( some days)
Thanks alot for another great video :D quite bad of china to even Propose dams like this. when it could affect India so badly. if they built it and worst case scenarios happened India would probably go to war to have the dam removed.
If it's controversial for foreign relations reasons, that's a good indicator that it'll happen no matter what it takes and consequences be darned - China cannot accept being seen as "backing down", "being weak" or "putting own interests second." China is happy to make bad choices, and once a choice is made they will throw a lot of money and resources at it. Whether that causes issues in 5-25 years with an earthquake is not relevant, as long as it doesn't literally wash away the current administration that's a future problem for someone else,
From the text at 5:10 "...and generate 60 gigawatts of electricity annually" I wouldn't take seriously any source that does not understand the difference between energy and power. 60 gigawatts would be absolutely massive, and I have my doubts that it is that big. Much more likely is 60 gigawatthours per annum, a much smaller project.
THE CHINESE DO NOT HAVE A VERY POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION RECORD . AS A MATTER OF FACT, THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A VERY POOR RECORD OF: BUILDING FAST, AND DOSNT LAST! AND ITS MOSTLY THERE POPULATION THAT SUFFERS! AND THE DEVELOPERS AND THE OFFICIALS ARE NOT HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR PART! IN MY OPINION, THIS IS A NIGHTMARE WAITING TO HAPPEN! FOR THE PEOPLE, ENVIRONMENT, ECT. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? HIMMM, THEY PROBABLY ARE NOT!
Feels similar to what the US does to Mexico and the rivers that should reach Mexico like the Colorado river that gets sucked dry before a drop makes it over the border…
Look up the Morelos dam which annually delivers over 1 millon acre feet of water to Mexico as per the agreed terms in a WW-II era treaty. Making and keeping agreements has nothing to do with "feels."
History deficient. "Tibet" was an empire 450 years ago covering NW China, and Mongolia. It failed and became China In 1905 it was invaded by Britain, but regained by China in 1909. During the 1950s the Dalai Lama ( a Mongolian named leader) attended the highest legislative body of China, and still does. p.s. The data is all available in the US Congress Library.
Keep in mind, dams on this river system, like Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, are run of the river. Additionally, no water flow, no electricity for your grid. So although you could delay water release, you couldn’t stop it. So far water is not being diverted to other parts of China. PS - bigger risk is glaciers diminishing in size during recent years
@@mike_w-tw6jd Does the US not have soldiers in US soil? You so smart!!!! Tibet part of Yuan dynasty aka mongols! It remain part of Yuan dynasty remnants. It become part of Qing Dynasty. Which set up the Dual Lama system. Two Lama's. Other Lama was part of ROC and PRC. The Lama the west loves was also part of ROC and PRC. He lived in Beijing for a while. They had autonomy till he allow following CIA direction. He declare independence. Other Lama didn't. Genius.
Hawaii tallest . Largest mountain range is maybe Andes, by volume above 5000 ft, followed by Tibet. distant third is US Rockies. Fourth is Turkey-Iran-Italy ranges ..... But earth is darn flat, 5 miles mountain on sphere 8000 miles across is like a hairline blemish width of hair on a smooth bowling ball, mountains sorta do NOT exist and gravity wins mostly to make earth a mostly smooth sphere ... Actually mountains are just light rock floating on mantle, is a ship a mountain, it too is light thing floating, earth is just things floating ..... Groovy man.
Height from center of earth, highest mountain is in Bolivia. Height means height above a clear single point, why use sea level which varies daily and by ocean, or the seafloor which also varies.... Bolivia has tallest mountain starting from earth center, it is robbed of this just cuz the sea level at Bolivia coast is high due to spin of earth? What has spin to do with reducing height??? Luckily this is not vital, who cares.
The loudest and most persistent complaint about the Three Gorges dam was how it was displacing so many people... No one being displaced here... No significant impoundment needed, so minimum effect downstream, even while filling... It's a shame how people want to obstruct hydroelectric projects when they can be so beneficial...
China tends to keep their water dams too full, then if it rains a lot they in govt panic out of fear of dam coollapse and release flood. This is deeply unfair for millions who are flooded. It may even be a net negative, if the damms earn $200b in electricity but cause $500b in destruction and closing down cities below for months .. Seriously, Google middle of night Chinese water releases. In USA w Oroville dam they had to evac 100,000 for months when repairs were needed, they never paid the people for that inconvenience, so dams can be deeply unfair...
Absolutely right ! This video is Casey running another China bashing rodeo. He does it regularly. He complains about them releasing water from the Three Gorges BEFORE the water level has risen to dangerous levels. This is just responsible management to avoid even worse flooding in the following weeks. Casey appears to have no understanding of the devastation caused over a huge area of Central Lowland China before the Three Gorges came on stream. Just like the Yellow River (China's Sorrow) the lower Yangtse has changed course many times in the last few thousand years causing millions of deaths both from the initial flood and then from famine and water-born diseases. Yes, there has been some serious flooding in the lower Yangste catchment in recent years but this is because of extremes of weather and the flooding caused by 24 inches of rain falling in a couple of months one year .... the rain falling BELOW the Three Gorges Dam ON LOWLAND CHINA. Casey just does not understand even basic geography and climatology. We have every reason to fear China but ignorant scaremongering just makes Casey appear to be what he is in the neutral sense of the word ... ignorant. Casey really ought to pay some attention to many of the jerry-built dams in the USA, so many having collapsed and many of them causing serious loss of life in the last 100 years. When he states that India is planning 13 hydro projects on the Brahmaputra, he is talking out of the top of his head. The Indians are planning 13 projects largely on the TRIBUTARIES of the Brahmaputra. When he goes on about the proportion of India's water that comes down the Brahmaputra, he is showing that he has absolutely know idea. His figure MIGHT (I'm not sure) be the proportion of the water that ENTERS India from other countries but the amount of rain that falls ON India is many, many, MANY times greater than the amount of water that flows INTO the country. The water that flows down the Brahmaputra into India and then out again into Bangladesh is seen more as a LIABILITY than an asset. IF the Chinese build the project that Casey says they are building, and IF the World's most devastating earthquake, more devastating than has ever been experienced before, were to hit the area, the worst that could happen is that the roof of the tunnel could cave in blocking the tunnel causing the water to over-top the relatively small dam. Casey obviously has visions of a single block of concrete weighing millions of tons in some Indiana Jones type movie rolling down the valley into India and crushing millions of people, That is absolutely absurd, and even if it began to tumble (which it won't) there are plenty of places on the way down where this monster bowling ball would get stuck. I KNOW. Unlike Casey, I have made a detailed academic study of the Brahmaputra. As for Google Maps, whilst the large scale maps are updated regularly, no matter what the imformation on screen may say, the more local the image ... 200 metres, 100 metres etc the more out of date the image. It can be up to 6 years out of date. I have personal experience. I used to live by the Sea and had a gazebo anchored in the garden. Although gales were frequent in the Winter, one night when we should already have taken the thing down, the mother and father of all storms ripped it to pieces. We didn't replace it and a couple of years later we moved. Next door, a piece of vacant land had a house being built on it. 6 years later, Google maps still had my gazebo and the plot of land at the side still vacant. Street-vIew shows images of shops that disappeared years ago ... but well, it is free. If Casey wants to be sure of his facts, he should subscribe to one of the paid-for mapping services like those used by the Bolsheviks in local authorities to spot planning infringements. I know that Google's outdated images are a constant source of complaint to Google.
@macking104 Thousands of transmission towers? Yes, of course... But the wildlife and the rest of the environment don't care about that at all... While the towers might be unsightly, they are environmentally benign... Only hikers would care, and they are almost nonexistent in this part of the world.
The best reason is one that is also true. China is serious about climate change, building hydropower is part of that. Geopolitical Power is also about it, but both are true.
Casey,
I attended the First International Meeting of the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Working Group on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions from Ships, June 2008 in Oslo, Norway. I attended as a technical advisor to the US delegation. The US delegation was led by the USCG.
The politics of meeting were as interesting as the technical issues. Third-world countries, led by China, demanded that all technologies developed by "First-world" countries be shared without restrictions. For instance, the company I worked for spent over $1M developing the hydrodynamics of a new tanker design. The Chinese delegation wanted full access to the design, and the raw data and the technologies used. But, I digress.
At the meeting I learned that China's largest source of China's greenhouse house gas was not coal burning power plants, automobiles, or ships. The largest source was wood burning. Once outside of the suburban sprawl surrounding cities, wood was used for heat and cooking. The hydroelectric dams are not there to electrify the rural areas. They are there to provide power to China's cities.
Bob
Just a reminder that CO2 is plant food and at very low levels compared to earth's history.
Xi's down-spiraling dictatorship makes me uneasy. He is currently headed toward a direct confrontation with the young women of China. They may not be able to safely critique the government in words, but by delaying marriage and forgoing children, they are expressing their view of the system in a very impactful manner.
Thank you, that's an interesting point I remember traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam in the 90s and just about everybody was cooking with charcoal. I imagine much of rural China is still the same way.
@@vladimus9749another climate ch@nge denier
Burning wood doesn't contribute to climate change, it's short-cycle carbon, not fossil carbon. The carbon that is in wood comes from the air so if that carbon is returned back to the air in a couple years, there's not net increase in CO2 in the air.
PRC invaded NE India in 1962 specifically to obtain "ownership" of this powerplant site.
Casey, Another terrific segment. Your analysis is very insightful and your delivery is clear, concise and easy to listen to.
Thank you so much, I appreciate it!!
Minute 11:08, year 2023 reflects a year where China was considering going to war, the point was made by a Chinese general who was sitting at the table during 3 Gorgers Dam inception process, and he told the others, 'If you build this dam, we will NEVER be able to make a preemptive strike due to the fact that this dam will have to be drained first because it will definitely be a retaliatory target due to its destructive potential on everything down stream including our military bases, and when we start to drain it, they will know that we are planning for the attack.'
3GD is definitely a military target now. I had somebody comment once that they were in China but were not allowed to travel to the dam as they were former U.S. military.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer I watched an interview here on TH-cam years back with a hydro-engineer of Chinese/German decent, I believe the last name was Yang or Lang, something like that, but he had given a 3 part interview with one of those parts being the topic of that dam being a target. I never saw it, I had watched part 1, clicked on part 2, (the target part), but they just played part 1 all over again.
It was that engineer who had shared the story that I shared, as he was at that same meeting. Damn, I've got his name written down in several places, you know, so that I'd never forget it again, now where's the friggin' notes?!? How the hell is this trick suppose to work???
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Got it, Wang Weiluo, who, according to Google, is an outspoken critic of the 3 Gorges Dam. Check him out, you'd like 'im.
@@lonihollenbeck4654 Maybe it will come to you after a while. It is so hard to get reliable information about these dams in China.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Yeah, it did, I thought that I had posted it for you. Actually, I Googled his name which is Wang Weiluo, he has been an outspoken opponent of the 3GD. He made three videos of it doing an interview, that was where I got the story of the general's advise. Check him out, man, you'd really like the guy, he's very sharp, right up your alley.
Nice job on summarizing the tectonic situation that brings the earthquake risk to this area. You might want to look at some of the dams built in India, Nepal, and Pakistan that are also directly on top of the convergent plate boundary in the Himalayas.
Thank you, that's a great suggestion!
China has a particularly nortorious reputation damming rivers. The head waters to the Mekong lie also in China and their treatment of water management as a national security issue has left SE Asia to struggle with their unannounced sequestration and releases, drying our or flooding the river. The Mekong’s fresh water fish populations have been decimated by climate and issues like these. Ironic, because salinification is destroying rice production in Vietnam and Thailand. China is dependent on imports.
I keep reading news reports about how bad China's economy is at this point. It seems that big projects like this could be just a distraction.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer While plausible, my sense is the drive to build dams has more with the way their system of advancement works and has operated for decades. It’s an imperative for an official’s career. Alternately transferring water to the drier North has been an obsession for quite some time (N/S water transfer). The faith in dominating nature is long standing as is fulfilling the notions of now dead leaders like Mao.
@@GhostOnTheHalfShell Well said. Thank you!
From an electrical engineering standpoint the ability to move the power to where it can be used is as important to a hydro plant. These dams are so remote that the power lines would have a significant impact on overall efficiency - and also be really difficult to build and maintain. So the main reasons for the project may just be so they can hold the water hostage and use it to get concessions from the down stream countries.
Thank you. Those are great points. This project seems like is simply isn't real.
This will cause problems for India and Bangladesh. I’m sure China will proceed with its typical discretion and consideration.
I agree with you on that.
Dams can suddenly fail for unknown reasons. Repeated series of unfortunate landslides over and over non stop can wipe out construction access roads to the interior mountains. Other unexpected issues in the country like floods and other weather modification failures may require more pressing attention. International money can be tight, loans defaulted; why - an imaginative person would find no end to ways a dam might be sidelined.
As you pointed out, this area is extremely remote, so it would be inconvenient at best for transporting any large amount of power to densely populated areas in China. In fact, the closest areas of major population are in India. The nearest major city in China is Chengdu, more than 800 km away across incredibly high relief mountains. The nearest city in Tibet is Lhasa, almost 400 km away.
@@ericfielding2540 .... They can run Bitcoin farms of computers off the Tibet dams.
@@amyself6678 Hasn't China banned Bitcoin mining? So they do it in our country (because we are dumb enough to let them)?
@@amyself6678 Bitcoin mining is effectively banned in China. They all moved out, many to Texas.
China leads the world in high voltage transmission lines. They can transport power in China with little tramsnission loss.
@@pvbarbell1904 It is possible to build a high-voltage transmission line from the Yarlung-Zangbo River to Chengdu, but it would be extremely expensive and prone to landslides and earthquakes. The southeast corner of Tibet that the power line would have to cross is the one place that gets major monsoon rainfall.
Just getting the heavy equipment needed into that area will cost a fortune. You are talking many years of work to get this built.
I agree that logistically it's just not possible in any reasonable time frame to do a project like this in that region.
That seems to be the chinese MO. Overpromise, underdeliver and questionable process all along the way lol.
@@bigaaronGood Lord, you have just stated your country's MAGA manifesto but I guess that it's okay for you but oh no, not for somebody else. I mean, how dare they build a dam in their own territory. What mean intellects you have.
His post has nothing to do with MAGA... lighten up
China's time horizon is in centurys not election cycles.
Thanks!
Thank you very much!
Great to see you "branching out". Always good info.
Thank you I appreciate it!
@@CaseyJones-Engineer
I'd be interested in your take on the Helene flooding. There seems to be some controversy over why it was so bad in select areas.
@@raykaufman7156 From what I have read, the flooding was so bad because of all the rain that preceded the passage of the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Also, there was an orographic effect as the storm moved up and over the mountains causing even more of the rain to be "wrung out". With that topography, there is not way to avoid a disaster with that much precipitation. The had a similar event over 100 years ago, but of course there was no I-40 and much of the other development was much sparser then.
I live about 100metres from the Mekong River in Phnom Penh. I've been here for over 30 years now and the Mekong is doing what it always does. It goes up in summer and down in winter. No major variations, it's different by a couple of metres up and down every year, seemingly randomly except for a correlation between the amount of snow melt from the Himalayas. Monsoon rain volume only has very localised effects.
Most of the dams in the Mekong catchment are not on the Mekong mainstream, they're on tributaries.
Release without notice has only happened a few times.... people have moved up hill a bit.
At the peak of natural low land seasonal flooding there aren't cow corpses, legs akimbo or poor dead souls floating down stream. People have adapted... fishing is easier, rice growing is easier.
There's the annual canoe race festival coming up next week. That's the river's peak.
Summary: no change on the Mekong in The Kingdom of Wonder folks.
The hydrology in the region is subject to massive changes as the weather patterns shift. IIRC the northern leg of the Brahmaputra may see significant fall off, especially as glaciers fade into nothingingness. Monsoon activity on the Southern slopes will increase, but it’s the massive flood variety. Changing weather will rewrite the hydrology over the region, with some parts of water sheds receiving much more or much less water. When the water comes, it will come as deluge on average. I doubt any design can embrace these factors which are a moving target for the foreseeable future.
Thanks for another interesting video which raises important (and uncomfortable) questions about the construction itself and long term possible problems. One of the things I like most about your presentations is reading comments from such a variety of knowledgeable commentators. You should be pleased that your channel is so well watched by these folks! Keep bringing more originals and more follow ups. 👍🏻👏🤗
Thanks so much. Yes, this channel benefits from a great audience and commentors!
China doesn't want you to call it Tibet anymore. Forced France to change name of Tibetan items held in their museums.
I guess I didn't get the memo. Lol.
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is another dam that is causing conflict between 2 countries, Egypt and Ethiopia and maybe Eritrea and Somalia that could be the subject of a video.
Would love to see this featured next
Great suggestion thank you!
I have a lot of minor questions about what you present. I am not a CE but an IT. One of the big ones is that regardless of the size of the dam, at some point, the amount of water going into the dam system equals the amount of water coming out unless used for irritation, which tends to evaporate. The length and the seismic seem like big negatives to the entire project, but perhaps after an earthquake, the tunnel could be relined.
Thanks for sharing this topic.
Great video Casey! Another dam that is just completing its reservoir filling is the Blue Nile Dam in Ethiopia. This one is a huge geopolitical issue with Sudan and Egypt (downstream) and we haven't heard the last of this one. It has a reservoir twice the size of Lake Mead and power generation of 6000 MW.
Thank you! I will look into that project.
tell us the problem
@@mike_w-tw6jd Ethiopia is damming the Blue Nile River, which turns into the Nile River, which fed the Great Pyramid area, and still feeds Sudan, and Egypt, which has a strong military. And China financed a big chunk of it.
@@danlowe8684 and your point? water flows in and then out, yes?
@@mike_w-tw6jd My point is that the source of the water is controlled by those upstream - when it never was before. We are talking about years' worth of water that is stopped up in huge reservoirs. No different than the Colorado River's flow that is viewed as in a constant 'drought' condition. The Colorado has never been in more than a two year 'drought' in its history. It has, however, been robbed of over 50% of its normal western mountainous water runoff by Colorado's eastern side, via tunnels, ditches and reservoirs. This, all done within our own country. Now, imagine this same condition over the span of three countries. THIS is what I was talking about.
Wonderful Data Dissemination my friend, MWM
Thank you. I will keep after the story.
This is a very interesting project. I hope they do build it. It reminds me of two other projects, one called Big Creek, and I think you would love to visit that dam, if you read the book first. I stopped at the National Park ranger station, picked up the book about how Big Creek was built by David Redinger, and then drove through Big Creek, Huntington Lake and the areas around Sequoia National Park. I went back to my RV, then read the book, and it showed the fascinating places I drove through, clueless to what it was.
They have 3 large hydroelectric projects, that are connected with 12 foot diameter penstocks, and have over 1,900 feet elevation change between Huntington Lake and Big Creek, and another 2,000 feet between Big Creek and the hydroelectric plant downstream from Big Creek. Yes something to peak your interest. They also have pumped water storage at the site now. They built a 22 mile long water tunnel back in the 1920's! They had a railroad going to Big Creek at 4,500 foot elevation back in 1912! And even had steam trains running around Huntington Lake at about 6,500 feet elevation!
The other project was built in Canada along the Columbia River back in the 1970's. It supplies a lot of water to the Columbia River during the summer. Before they had lots of water only in the spring run off time, then during the summer, they lacked the ability to generate full power all summer long. So the dams built in Canada is to store that spring run off, and release it all summer long. Much like this Chinese project can do. America actually spent $365 Million to pay for the dam built in Canada on the Columbia River, and it was paid for by the excess power they are now able to generate in Washington to make additional power in the summer. $365 Million in 1970 dollars is like $5 Billion today.
I think that China can store a lot of water, then release it through the year, and that can actually help those downstream, avoid floods in the monsoon and then have more water in the dry season.
As for Google Earth pictures of the ground, in California, they actually fly blimps to take the pictures over Los Angeles County, (they parked them overnight at Long Beach Airport, where I worked on the AC units, and know the security staff). Over the high mountains in China, they probably do not take new pictures often, they actually might be from space, not ground based pictures.
So if you ever wondered how a "Satellite View" of your house, and you can see details like the roof of your RV, it is not a picture taken from space, but a blimp flying over your home at a slow speed, vibration free.
Thanks for the video. Somehow I always learn something over here. Thanks!
@@davidmiller6010 Thank you, I appreciate it!
Bangladesh just denied China a money maker project and gave it to India due to the crappy quality of building materials from China. China was not happy
I guess you don't know jack. Google newly built airport and bridges they keep falling apart in India. China hasn't had these problem for over a decade. That was in the past.
@@armchairwarrior963tofu dreg
And I bet it has nothing to do with the US backed coup of Bangladesh that happened recently at all.
A project of that magnitude cannot be hidden from space reconnaissance assets.
I will work on getting my hands on current satellite information for this area. I haven't had any luck so far, unless the current Google maps images are current which shows no construction activity for such a project.
No project is completed in China without bribes being paid all the way along the build and supply chain. This results in no oversight and sub standard materials being used. What could go wrong? China is the home of TOFU construction.
My question is; who is using this power? I don't think there is a big population center/centers in China around that area, and transmitting power from single source is very uneconomical! So unless they are thinking of selling it to India or Nepal, are they planning on building a huge grid system back eastward?
China has made ultra high DC lines for other projects, far higher voltages than anywhere else in the world. They would use those to lessen transmission losses
i think the himalayan range experiences couple of small earthquakes every month,
It is a very active place.
Can it power a time traveling DeLorean? Great stuff as always, Casey
🤣Thank you!
There are satellite image providers who charge for current images. They are not what I would call inexpensive, but are useful to researchers and NGO's or Corporations.
Thank you. I will look into that. I have been investing in drone flights so hopefully the satellite images will be comparable in cost.
The transmission lines to take the generated power to market would be a serious challenge to build in that sort of terrain.
I don't have any interest in this topic but you are so intelligent i love learning from you.
Wow, thank you!
Your content is superb 👏👏👏
Thank you so much! 😀
One reason to be careful with Google views of China is that labelled streets often don't line up with imagery. Take a look at Lhasa, for example.
🔥🔥🔥 been waiting for this
Thank you!
China needs to be careful in the world affairs.
Thats an awful low of of power being generated in the middle of nowhere.
Should be interesting to see how they plan to transport it.
High voltage DC power 500,000 volts .
Only two wire on the poles not 3, no inductive or capacitive reactance losses .
The water wars here will be intense and bloody.
Good video. I gave you a thumbs up but TH-cams counter stayed at zero
Thank you! YT does some weird stuff sometimes.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Yeah weird stuff, Like when you say anything about China
@@DrEvil814do misspellings work?
I think you are correct in questioning chinese motives. Their government does little that is straight forward in purpose. Spending the money it would take to just get equipment into this area of the world and then building a damn there would probably not of itself be a great payoff in the short term, but controlling thier enemies, mainly India would add a great deal of value to the project aside from its electricity generation.
Google has admitted to placing old images of forested areas over what are now tar sands operations at the request of the mine owners.
Interesting. I wonder what agenda they are trying to promote? It seems like it would be a lot easier to show current images whatever they may be.
You nailed it on the head, my friend
Thank you!
Good video.
is there credible information available for anything, anywhere? Maybe, but it's really time consuming to find it.
That seems to be the case although I'm still working on this situation.
this river buries Bangladesh in floods during monsoon season fairly regularly.
If China builds a series of dams on this river it'll cut off new sediment deposits in Bangladesh which would be a real disaster for their agriculture.
A dam system that far from their major cities close to the border of another country and in an earthquake area feels like a dangerous activity for the neighbors.
Given that India and China also have conflicting interests in that area where the river leaves the Himalayas this is concerning. Arunachal Pradesh is at least in Google Earth marked as "contested" and to no surprise that river runs through there.
China hasn't been showing that they are very concerned about environmental impact though, so this might be one of their efforts to get healthy water southeast China, but it's a horribly expensive and
What about information from that satellite mapping you showed us the other day?
I will reach out to them. I have them loaded up right now on other projects.
Is it possible to build a "flow through" power station that does not restrict downstream water flow significantly?
Almost a suspended dam concept?
Im thinking something like an xxl fish weir (i think that's the right term for what I'm thinking of) that has inbuilt turbines.
Yes I think that's a good analogy.
Is Bechtel designing at this time?
Unless they are using the water for irrigation, every drop that is dammed will be released eventually, 50m high, won't hold a load of water back.
Thanks 👍
Great show. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it
If this new project doesn't need a huge reservoir since they can tunnel thru the mountain and use the large elevation difference for power production and if this was all done on the Chinese side then it wouldn't affect the river flow much since the water would be returned to the river before crossing the border. Canada has a generating station at Churchill Falls in Labrador with a 1200ft head and the power station is built inside a mountain.
Peter Zeihan says high-voltage transmission lines you can only “ship” electricity around 500 statue miles before line loss eats into your profit margins. What cities in the area can consume all the power these dams are going to produce?
That's a great point. I will look into that. I am a big fan of Zeihan.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer Hydro Québec carries power from Radisson QC to Montréal, about 1000km. It also sends power to New York state, and ans a DC line all the way to Boston, about 1500km. Some of the most upriver dams on the james bay project are about 599km from Radisson. Labrador also exports a huge chunk of power from Churchill falls to the Québec grid which is at least 1500km in straight line to Montréal. And while a dam in Tibet may not directly feed Shanghai or Beijing, feeding nearer popu;atio means power generated closer to the large cities won't need to also flow west to the cities nearer Tibet so more power goes to cities,
Perhaps Peter isn't aware of the advantages of HVDC/UHVDC transmission. China employs these technologies more than any other country.
Hmmm. You could run a massive AI model on that power.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer According to Peter Zeihan if India wants they could pick off any tanker sailing by their backyard strangling China’s vast oil imports. Water for oil. You could spend an entire day catching up on Zeihan’s China videos he has made in the last four years.
The concern over providing water for another downstream countries should start on the Colorado River where we (i.e. the U.S.) seem to take water to use to build cities in the desert. Why is China held to a higher standard.
At 29.53263, 94.88651 Something has been built recently and in the last coulple of months has behind to span the river, but not sure if just another bridge or a dam. On east side of river, a "line"ecists all the way to flanc of mountain. On the Oct 14 pass, the span connects noth sides or river and it is looking mroe like a river. But the bridge itself appear metl deck, rapidly erected since june. (Oct 14 pass os partly obscured y clouds). On the sept 19 pass, the structure which was started from east going west was halfway cross river. (seen with sentinel eo browser).
If a dam will be built there, the bridge just south of there will likely be flooded so it would make sense to build a new bridge likely next to the dam that will be buit. Or it could be a temporary steel bridge for construction trucks. But if they will dig a tunnel why not built it to the westn side of the bend to gain a bit more elevation difference? Other than that bridge, I have not seen anything obvious (Sentinel is lower quality than Google Earth) but much more frequent, though often just all white due to cloud coverage).
Look at the dam at Lake ☺️Isabella holding the current back. It’s sitting on an active quake and the quake has a crack that they could never fill with concrete they’ve tried.
Google maps does a lot of weird things for china so i would not use it as a source. Notice that the roads on the map and the ground do not line up, and in more urban areas, but a non standard amount. it's not a simple translation error, it's an intentional obfuscation done to appease the PRC.
It's a cover story for building the Arcs from the film 2012. This is literally that sub-plot of the film: Tell the locals they're building hydro power.
I would not be surprised
Throughout the world glaciers have been shrinking to the point of extinction. Tibet (the third pole) is not exempt from this phenomenon. Close to 25% of the world’s population (2 billion people) rely on this water.
This is gonna seal up just like the three gorge down
This seal is what’s destroying three gorges dam a shoddy construction
The Chinese have locked down any information about 3GD.
Geez i hope you're wrong.
Man if that thing failed that would cause truly biblical level destruction.
I haven’t seen any indication that’s there’s anything wrong with three gorges. There was a bad satellite photo going around, but it didn’t show a correct image.
3 gorges will silt up. It's why the river has its name...
According to Buddhist myth, Shambala is a mythical Kingdom were all the inhabitants got enlightened and disappeared from this world
Thank you, that is very interesting!
On water: unless you divert from one river to the next, or use it for agriculture where all water evaporates inseat of fliwing back to river, , a dam will yield the same amount of water downstream as it gets upstream, but , especally with a hydro dam, the goal is to have a constant flow of water do downstream would get more constant flow instead of flood causing flows followed by droughts. The problem here is dipliomatic because other countries have no say in how Chna manages its water so they are obviously affraid of what China might do.
Thanks.
China uses HVDC/UHVDC technology more than any other country. This solves the distance issues.
But a run of the river damn doesn't make a reservoir this would be an astounding compromise if China can engineer it and pull it off.
Google shades many things out on Google Earth
All dams across water that has another country downstream are weapons. Playing with sluice gates is more effective than most bombs, either by starvation or inundation.
Good job. What's your job exactly, again?
Doing good.
India is not happy about this
Projects that have the possibility of affecting other countries should come to international scrutiny, especially given China’s poor quality of these large projects.
does all this mean that you condemn what USA did to Mexico with the water diversion of the colorado and rio grand rivers.
Not at all.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer the mexicos sure do condemn the yanks and have done so for decades, without america doing anything but making the situation for mexico worse... this is why the world is tired of yankee hypocrisy.
@@cocodog85 Good to know you are so concerned about Mexico. China is in decline.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer ...are the chinas 35 trillion $s in debt? or do the chinas have a 1.8 trillion $ annual budget deficit? or do the chinas have 15K gun murders/year. or old collapsing infrastructure? or election riots? or an economy growth of less than 2%?... more like america is in decline. where's the china decline part?
your video is typical yankee non sense.
Half As Interesting, I believe, has a video about online Chinese maps. They are intentionally made with errors to limit the amount of intelligence that can be gathered from them.
I need to look into this more as it seems to be a prevalent issue. I wonder if Google does the same for Area 51 in the U.S. and other sensitive sights?
And what would stop China from rerouting that river back into China?
a diversion tunnel for that level of power generation would be absolutly Massive in bore scale in order to not have suction issues problems and cavatation erosion problems for more than 30 miles? it will be a problem before it is even finished nope i would cut a shelf around the inside corner of the canyion for feeding a stepped canal system generators one after other run of river setup and opverflow spillways back to the river on the left side with no impounded water really needed,
also because rivers are greats mining tools the final outflow from the canal would be over a lond strecth of riffle plates for heavy materials gathering and magnets for the iron.
Just keep speaking the truth
12:13 wait WHAT? Do you have a fever? My man.. dude...
China says it does a lot of things, puts some window dressing on it so they can say they have made process and in ten years they actually start working on it. This is actually a good thing, because the things China rushes are more often than not big fuck-ups. So let them boast and make big claims, and get some engineers to point out all kinds of pit falls (like dropping water 600 meters aint just a normal engineer problem, typical it’s around 14 psi per 10 meters so that’s 840 PSI and while that may not seem like a lot for micro engineers, when we talk about the metal gating for power plant, no joke a foot radius flow valve is 190 tons and what kind of hydrolis actuators are you going to need to open an close the valve.
The other problem water at 840 PSI is murder on seals and seats. A leak one micron in diameter can dig a hole through just about everything. How do I know this, I used to work with HPLC and as long as you don’t touch the ferrels you are fine, but once you start disassembling this stuff it gets real tricky after 10 or openings and closing whether the next opening will hold. There are tricks like using a touch piece of clothe to kind of relaminate the ferrel, but all it takes is the tiniest nonconformity in the ferrel or seat and that’s it. I used to have a collection of old columns I would have and unpack material from one column and repack another. The thing about HPLC is its flow limited to about 0.25 cc and there are often antioxidants in the solvent. Not so in natural waterways, lots of oxide free radicals, at 840 PSI and once you get a leak, think of it like this MGH, = 10 x 600 = 6 kj/kg of water, so then you have heat plus pressure plus antioxidant the net result is going to be erosion. There’s another problem, a 42 foot water drop can create a near complete vacuum (+ pH20 at that temperature) on the upper control gate, if these are below water and you try to close these in an emergency the suction the gate experience may permanently damage the gate.
Repairing flow control and impellers even in a 20° grade pipe is not fun. So if they don’t think it out ahead it may end up biting them in the ass.
it's interesting. For me id would make sence to have a little dam with a volume fpr several days up to a week or so. of cause on the high side of the River, then to built a tunnel.
I would start with the tunnel at Xong Di Fan Dian, rhere is a bridge You will see on Google earth the elevation of the river is 2932 meter. there is a tunnel under construktion for street cars seen on nthe norter side going through the mountan at an elevation of 3570 m. 5 km north west. On the other side of the nountain 4.740 m away You can see teh other entrence for the road Tunel. it could have been even shorter... (4,230 km) If You would dig from the river at an elevation of 2930 m throug the Mabout 1616ountain into the same valley the Tulnnerl has a length of 16 km. Up from this point ist is easy to let the water flow in pipa or tunnel or open at one side of the valley at approximately constant hight. This can be done til the end of the little valley, that means you are only 9 km away from the river. Abd tha neans You can built a kanal fpr the water without any preassure un the level of the ricer there for about 90 km an You built the powaerplant into the rock at that point. So the pipe that has to resist heigh preassure kan be kept short. So you need two tunnels one of 16 km on of 10 km which are without preasure , and for the Rest an open canal. It seems to me that this can be done at a moderate cost and withaou building much of a dam. Lots of the Problems You are discussing would not exist as wateer can only be stord for a short amount of Time ( some days)
CCP is not interested in cooperation, ecology, or human rights .
I suggest you look at Nasiem Harramein’s work
Thanks alot for another great video :D quite bad of china to even Propose dams like this. when it could affect India so badly. if they built it and worst case scenarios happened India would probably go to war to have the dam removed.
This project is not going to be built
I think you are right about that.
If it's controversial for foreign relations reasons, that's a good indicator that it'll happen no matter what it takes and consequences be darned - China cannot accept being seen as "backing down", "being weak" or "putting own interests second." China is happy to make bad choices, and once a choice is made they will throw a lot of money and resources at it. Whether that causes issues in 5-25 years with an earthquake is not relevant, as long as it doesn't literally wash away the current administration that's a future problem for someone else,
They are mining the heck out of bitcoin lol
Don't let china weaponize the moon. 😂😅😂. It will happen if its possible.
I think that's Chinese plan.
From the text at 5:10
"...and generate 60 gigawatts of electricity annually"
I wouldn't take seriously any source that does not understand the difference between energy and power. 60 gigawatts would be absolutely massive, and I have my doubts that it is that big. Much more likely is 60 gigawatthours per annum, a much smaller project.
You got it wrong I said installed capacity. I didn't say annual generation.
@@CaseyJones-Engineer I'm quoting the presented text on the screen at time 5:10.
The quote in my comment matches the text on the screen.
THE CHINESE DO NOT HAVE A VERY POSITIVE CONSTRUCTION RECORD . AS A MATTER OF FACT, THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A VERY POOR RECORD OF: BUILDING FAST, AND DOSNT LAST! AND ITS MOSTLY THERE POPULATION THAT SUFFERS! AND THE DEVELOPERS AND THE OFFICIALS ARE NOT HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR PART! IN MY OPINION, THIS IS A NIGHTMARE WAITING TO HAPPEN! FOR THE PEOPLE, ENVIRONMENT, ECT. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING? HIMMM, THEY PROBABLY ARE NOT!
WHY HELL ARE YOU YELLING? Nobody is going to give a flying F when you can’t type like a normal adult.
Aedificare in tuo proprio solo non licet quod alteri noceat
It is not lawful to build on one's own land that which may be injurious to another.
Feels similar to what the US does to Mexico and the rivers that should reach Mexico like the Colorado river that gets sucked dry before a drop makes it over the border…
Look up the Morelos dam which annually delivers over 1 millon acre feet of water to Mexico as per the agreed terms in a WW-II era treaty. Making and keeping agreements has nothing to do with "feels."
mexico not living up to agreements on rio grande
Damn are some of the worst concepts of humans ever came up with there are certain types dams to use, but they are not these massive ones
Beavers are insulted by this comment
Use google earth.
The concrete on the 3/4 dam was poured so fast it is still curing and it’s bending and bulging
A new TVA project to enrich uranium make plutonium?
History deficient. "Tibet" was an empire 450 years ago covering NW China, and Mongolia. It failed and became China In 1905 it was invaded by Britain, but regained by China in 1909. During the 1950s the Dalai Lama ( a Mongolian named leader) attended the highest legislative body of China, and still does. p.s. The data is all available in the US Congress Library.
Keep in mind, dams on this river system, like Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, are run of the river. Additionally, no water flow, no electricity for your grid. So although you could delay water release, you couldn’t stop it. So far water is not being diverted to other parts of China.
PS - bigger risk is glaciers diminishing in size during recent years
How will Ethiopia run out of water?
No proof comrade Xi.
Tibet been part of China both imperial and Republic for along time. Hasn't been independent since Mongol times.
is that why cccp put in army?
@@mike_w-tw6jd Does the US not have soldiers in US soil? You so smart!!!! Tibet part of Yuan dynasty aka mongols! It remain part of Yuan dynasty remnants. It become part of Qing Dynasty. Which set up the Dual Lama system. Two Lama's. Other Lama was part of ROC and PRC. The Lama the west loves was also part of ROC and PRC. He lived in Beijing for a while. They had autonomy till he allow following CIA direction. He declare independence. Other Lama didn't. Genius.
Isn’t Hawaii the largest mountain in the world
Hawaii tallest . Largest mountain range is maybe Andes, by volume above 5000 ft, followed by Tibet. distant third is US Rockies. Fourth is Turkey-Iran-Italy ranges ..... But earth is darn flat, 5 miles mountain on sphere 8000 miles across is like a hairline blemish width of hair on a smooth bowling ball, mountains sorta do NOT exist and gravity wins mostly to make earth a mostly smooth sphere ... Actually mountains are just light rock floating on mantle, is a ship a mountain, it too is light thing floating, earth is just things floating ..... Groovy man.
Actually, Maura Kea is the tallest in the World…. from its base to its peak it is over 33,500 feet. Several thousand feet taller than Everest.
Height from center of earth, highest mountain is in Bolivia. Height means height above a clear single point, why use sea level which varies daily and by ocean, or the seafloor which also varies.... Bolivia has tallest mountain starting from earth center, it is robbed of this just cuz the sea level at Bolivia coast is high due to spin of earth? What has spin to do with reducing height??? Luckily this is not vital, who cares.
The loudest and most persistent complaint about the Three Gorges dam was how it was displacing so many people... No one being displaced here... No significant impoundment needed, so minimum effect downstream, even while filling... It's a shame how people want to obstruct hydroelectric projects when they can be so beneficial...
China tends to keep their water dams too full, then if it rains a lot they in govt panic out of fear of dam coollapse and release flood. This is deeply unfair for millions who are flooded. It may even be a net negative, if the damms earn $200b in electricity but cause $500b in destruction and closing down cities below for months .. Seriously, Google middle of night Chinese water releases. In USA w Oroville dam they had to evac 100,000 for months when repairs were needed, they never paid the people for that inconvenience, so dams can be deeply unfair...
They’re so ecologically destructive
Absolutely right ! This video is Casey running another China bashing rodeo. He does it regularly. He complains about them releasing water from the Three Gorges BEFORE the water level has risen to dangerous levels. This is just responsible management to avoid even worse flooding in the following weeks. Casey appears to have no understanding of the devastation caused over a huge area of Central Lowland China before the Three Gorges came on stream. Just like the Yellow River (China's Sorrow) the lower Yangtse has changed course many times in the last few thousand years causing millions of deaths both from the initial flood and then from famine and water-born diseases. Yes, there has been some serious flooding in the lower Yangste catchment in recent years but this is because of extremes of weather and the flooding caused by 24 inches of rain falling in a couple of months one year .... the rain falling BELOW the Three Gorges Dam ON LOWLAND CHINA. Casey just does not understand even basic geography and climatology. We have every reason to fear China but ignorant scaremongering just makes Casey appear to be what he is in the neutral sense of the word ... ignorant.
Casey really ought to pay some attention to many of the jerry-built dams in the USA, so many having collapsed and many of them causing serious loss of life in the last 100 years. When he states that India is planning 13 hydro projects on the Brahmaputra, he is talking out of the top of his head. The Indians are planning 13 projects largely on the TRIBUTARIES of the Brahmaputra.
When he goes on about the proportion of India's water that comes down the Brahmaputra, he is showing that he has absolutely know idea. His figure MIGHT (I'm not sure) be the proportion of the water that ENTERS India from other countries but the amount of rain that falls ON India is many, many, MANY times greater than the amount of water that flows INTO the country. The water that flows down the Brahmaputra into India and then out again into Bangladesh is seen more as a LIABILITY than an asset.
IF the Chinese build the project that Casey says they are building, and IF the World's most devastating earthquake, more devastating than has ever been experienced before, were to hit the area, the worst that could happen is that the roof of the tunnel could cave in blocking the tunnel causing the water to over-top the relatively small dam. Casey obviously has visions of a single block of concrete weighing millions of tons in some Indiana Jones type movie rolling down the valley into India and crushing millions of people, That is absolutely absurd, and even if it began to tumble (which it won't) there are plenty of places on the way down where this monster bowling ball would get stuck. I KNOW. Unlike Casey, I have made a detailed academic study of the Brahmaputra.
As for Google Maps, whilst the large scale maps are updated regularly, no matter what the imformation on screen may say, the more local the image ... 200 metres, 100 metres etc the more out of date the image. It can be up to 6 years out of date. I have personal experience. I used to live by the Sea and had a gazebo anchored in the garden. Although gales were frequent in the Winter, one night when we should already have taken the thing down, the mother and father of all storms ripped it to pieces. We didn't replace it and a couple of years later we moved. Next door, a piece of vacant land had a house being built on it. 6 years later, Google maps still had my gazebo and the plot of land at the side still vacant. Street-vIew shows images of shops that disappeared years ago ... but well, it is free. If Casey wants to be sure of his facts, he should subscribe to one of the paid-for mapping services like those used by the Bolsheviks in local authorities to spot planning infringements. I know that Google's outdated images are a constant source of complaint to Google.
@@michaelimbesi2314 Ecologically destructive?... No, not really, not if there's only a small impoundment...
@macking104 Thousands of transmission towers? Yes, of course... But the wildlife and the rest of the environment don't care about that at all... While the towers might be unsightly, they are environmentally benign... Only hikers would care, and they are almost nonexistent in this part of the world.
i think this is similar to the solar or nuke power generation ind the desert. Once build you start asking yourself where are the customer - all BS
The best reason is one that is also true. China is serious about climate change, building hydropower is part of that. Geopolitical Power is also about it, but both are true.