The water woes of China’s iconic mega-dam are part of a global hydropower crisis that is being made worse by global warming.
Source: Bloomberg
The Big Take
The World’s Biggest Source of Clean Energy Is Evaporating Fast
From California to Germany and China, climate change-fueled heatwaves and droughts have shrunk rivers that feed giant hydropower plants.
China’s Three Gorges Dam is an awe-inspiring sight, a vast barrier across the Yangtze River that contains enough concrete to fill seven Wembley Stadiums and more steel than eight Empire State Buildings. Its turbines could singlehandedly power the Philippines.
But this summer, the world’s largest power plant was eerily quiet.