On July 4, 2012, the last unit of the Three Gorges Hydropower Station was officially connected to the grid for power generation. Did you know that if all the generator sets in the Three Gorges work at the same time, it can generate 22.4 million kWh in one hour. To know the annual power generation of the Three Gorges, we only need to multiply this by 24 hours and then by 365 days, which is about 196.2 billion kWh. If calculated according to the civil electricity price of 0.5 yuan, the annual power generation revenue of the Three Gorges is as high as 98.1 billion yuan, or 270 million yuan a day. It is no exaggeration to say that this is equivalent to the printing speed of a money printing machine. Many people likened the Three Gorges to a "super money printing machine".

Some people may say: Even a machine can't work all year round at full power, right?

In fact, what I just said is only the maximum value of the Three Gorges power generation. In fact, the generator sets do not work all the time, and not all the generator sets are turned on at the same time. Only in the full power state when the water volume is the largest, all the generator sets need to run at the same time, and the power generation capacity of 22.4 million kWh can be achieved. It's like opening a restaurant. When there is a small number of passengers, fewer plates are needed, and only a portion is enough. When there is a lot of traffic, all the plates need to be taken out.

In fact, according to the official data released by the Three Gorges, the annual average working time of each generator set is about 4,000 hours, and the annual average power generation of the Three Gorges is between 80 and 90 billion kWh. Therefore, the annual profit of the Three Gorges Dam is 900 times At 0.5, it is equal to 45 billion yuan. Do you think so too when you are in front of the screen?

How much money can the Three Gorges make in a year by selling electricity?

In fact, the electricity generated by the hydropower station is not directly transmitted to us, but the electricity is sold to the grid first, and then the grid transmits the electricity to each household. In this way, the power grid acts as a middleman, and naturally it cannot be calculated by 0.5 yuan once. It has to be calculated according to the on-grid electricity price of hydropower stations of 0.25-0.3 yuan, so the correct calculation method should be 0.25*900=22.5 billion yuan. On an average day, it is 60 million yuan in income.

In this way, we can compare it with our other protagonist today, the money printing machine. The money printing machine can print 12 hundred-yuan bills in one second. The answer can be obtained by simple calculation, and it can print about 100 million yuan a day. It can be said that it is also very appropriate to compare the Three Gorges Hydropower Station to a money printing machine.

Have you ever thought that a considerable part of the electricity that lights up the city may come from the Three Gorges Hydropower Station in the streets with neon lights, the night view of the city with thousands of lights?

Many people may say that the electricity generated by the Three Gorges in one year is actually just enough to meet the electricity demand of a new first-tier city like Chengdu for one year. It is not as powerful as imagined. After all, 70% of all electricity consumption in China is Or thermal power. In addition to power generation, can you think of what benefits the Three Gorges have brought to China?

Friends who have been to the Three Gorges Dam sightseeing tour should know that the five-level ship lock of the Three Gorges is free to pass, and the tour does not charge tickets for Chinese people. Why is this?

We mentioned earlier that the Three Gorges Hydropower Station can generate nearly 100 million income every day. Compared with this, the income from collecting tickets seems to be a drop in the bucket. Moreover, free tickets can also play a role in publicity, attracting more tourists to appreciate the charm of national infrastructure, which can also promote local tourism and economic development, why not do it.

The Three Gorges Dam, which is comparable to a money printing machine, has other functions besides generating electricity and other economic benefits?

The completion of the Three Gorges Dam has greatly improved the shipping conditions of the Yangtze River, increasing the annual one-way navigation capacity of the Yangtze River from 10 million tons to 50 million tons, reducing the transportation cost by 35%-37%, and promoting the rapid development of shipping on the Yangtze River.

Secondly, in terms of environmental protection, hydropower, as a clean energy source, not only provides green power for the development of the national economy, but also has huge energy saving and emission reduction benefits. According to data, the annual average power generation of the Three Gorges Power Station is 88.2 billion kWh, which is equivalent to replacing the burning of 50 million tons of raw coal every year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 100 million tons and sulfur dioxide by more than 2 million tons each year.

Finally, the Three Gorges Reservoir ensures the irrigation water needs of crops in the surrounding and middle and lower reaches. The high gorge is out of Pinghu, and the water quality in the reservoir is superior and the nutrition is rich, which has created the development of freshwater aquaculture.

At the beginning of the Three Gorges Project, the most important starting point was to fight floods and droughts, and to adjust and store the floods of the Yangtze River. It is not only necessary to avoid floods in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the flood season, but also to be able to mobilize water sources during droughts to ensure that water supply needs are guaranteed, and flood control and drought relief are naturally not measured by money.

It has been nearly a hundred years since the Three Gorges Project was proposed, implemented and completed. At the beginning of the construction, the investment amount exceeded 200 billion yuan. Today, the Three Gorges Hydropower Station has a daily income of at least 60 million yuan. After being put into use, all the original construction costs have been recovered.