Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower plant is full, and is generating its maximum amount of power for the first time.
The China Three Gorges Project Corp. said the reservoir’s water level hit its maximum height of 175 meters (574 feet) at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, marking the symbolic culmination of the project.
China has made two earlier attempts to raise the water level at the dam, with the previous record of 172.8 meters (567 feet) achieved in 2008. The project, built along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, China‘s longest, began storing water in 2003.
Hydroworld reports China has consistently promoted the mammoth US$23 billion, 660-kilometer-long reservoir as the best way to end centuries of floods along the basin of the Yangtze and to provide energy to fuel the country’s economic boom.