From the banks of the Yangtze River to the shores of the deep sea, from mountain gorges to desert plateaus, giant dams stand tall, rows of wind turbines spin in the breeze, and expansive photovoltaic arrays stretch across plateaus, tidal flats, and mountain slopes—together forming China’s energy landscape in the new era.

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, guided by the “dual carbon” goals, China built the world’s largest renewable energy system and new energy industry chain. Across the vast mountains and rivers, the clean energy brand represented by “China Three Gorges” has witnessed and participated in this transformative change that will determine the future of sustainable development.

The “14th Five-Year Plan” period was a milestone in the history of China’s hydropower development. Over the past five years, CTG has continued to consolidate its core advantages in large-scale hydropower, laying the foundation for China’s global leading position in hydropower and injecting powerful momentum into Chinese-style modernization.

On December 20, 2022, with the official grid connection of Unit 9, all 16 million-kilowatt units of the Baihetan Hydropower Station were put into operation, marking the full completion of the world’s largest clean energy corridor on the Yangtze River during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period.

Stretching 1,800 kilometers, this clean energy corridor has a total installed capacity of 71.695 million kilowatts and can provide approximately 300 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity annually, equivalent to saving about 90.45 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 248 million tons. It is of great significance for building a new energy system and ensuring national energy security.

With the successive completion and commissioning of the Wudongde and Baihetan Hydropower Stations during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s hydropower has continuously scaled new heights in global hydropower technology.

— China’s major hydropower equipment achieved a “three-step leap”: from the 700,000-kilowatt units of the Three Gorges Project, to the 850,000-kilowatt units of Wudongde, and then to the world’s largest 1,000,000-kilowatt units of Baihetan, demonstrating the strong strength of “Created in China.”

— The entire industrial chain of China’s hydropower equipment has been continuously upgraded: during the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the spiral cases of the left-bank units were highly dependent on imported 600-megapascal high-strength steel; by the time of the Wudongde and Baihetan projects, domestically produced 800-megapascal high-strength steel was widely used, providing comprehensive practical experience for the continuous upgrading of domestic high-strength steel.

— China’s intelligent manufacturing continues to write new chapters: after the Xiluodu Hydropower Station pioneered the intelligent construction of high arch dams, the Wudongde and Baihetan projects pushed intelligent construction technologies to new heights. With the support of intelligent construction technologies featuring comprehensive perception, real-time analysis, real-time control, and continuous optimization of decision-making, the most “intelligent” engineering masterpieces in the history of hydraulic construction have been completed on the Jinsha River.

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG operated the world’s largest clean energy corridor with high quality, achieving a series of innovative results.

At the Three Gorges Power Plant, the inspection tasks of electrical equipment in the 500-kV GIS room have been taken over by a four-wheel-drive robot named “Jianxingzhe” (Walker). Accompanied by a slight buzzing sound, it covers more than 1,000 inspection points one by one, and the measurement data with pictures and texts is accurately transmitted back, solving the problems of long time consumption and low efficiency of manual inspection of electrical equipment.

At the Xiangjiaba Power Station, the large-scale upgrade and transformation of “full-system + full-unit + full-plant” industrial control system equipment has been completed, making it the first giant hydropower station in China to achieve this goal during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period. This marks a key breakthrough in the independent controllability and intelligent operation and maintenance of China’s hydropower equipment industrial chain.

At the Xiluodu Hydropower Station, the fault pre-control technology for gas-insulated metal-enclosed transmission lines (GIL) has been successfully developed, ending the history that large hydropower stations in China could only carry out passive repairs after GIL failures, and adding an important guarantee for the long-term safe and stable operation of the power station.

The world looks to China for hydropower, and China looks to the Three Gorges. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the “Three Gorges Standards” and “Three Gorges Experience” have contributed to building a community with a shared future for mankind.

In Punjab, Pakistan, the Karot Hydropower Station, the first hydropower investment project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, has been transformed from a blueprint into a “green pearl” on the Jhelum River.

In Brazil, CTG Brazil has carried out large-scale technological renovations on the 40-year-old Jupiá and Ilha Solteira hydropower stations, solving the problem of overall serious aging of the electromechanical equipment, increasing the generating capacity of the units, realizing remote intelligent control, and bringing the unit performance up to the advanced level in Brazil.

Rivers run endlessly, and the light of hydropower shines on. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG’s large-scale hydropower business achieved high-quality development, writing a new chapter in the historic leap of China’s hydropower.

In September 2020, China promised the international community at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly that it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s energy transition toward green and low-carbon development has been accelerated. In this leap toward “diversified and clean energy,” CTG has explored innovative development models in light of local conditions and actively participated in the green and low-carbon transformation of energy.

— Building large-scale onshore new energy bases. In the hinterland of the Kubuqi Desert, 3.87 million photovoltaic panels are converting sunlight into a steady stream of green electricity. The first 10-million-kilowatt-level “desert, Gobi, and wasteland” new energy base built by CTG has turned the yellow desert into green power for thousands of families. In the Taklimakan Desert in southern Xinjiang, a 10-million-kilowatt-level new energy base has started construction, enabling Xinjiang’s abundant wind and solar resources to support the national energy structure transformation.

— Leading offshore wind power. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG successively completed and put into operation a number of million-kilowatt-level offshore wind power bases in coastal areas such as Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Fujian, building a complete industrial chain from offshore survey, design, and construction to operation and maintenance, and solving a series of world-class problems such as deep-sea construction and typhoon resistance of wind turbines.

— Promoting integrated wind-solar-hydro development. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG steadily carried out planning and research on the integrated wind-solar-hydro base in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, including grid connection system transformation, wind-solar-hydro collection and networking, and integrated regulation technology research. The first batch of 2.6 million-kilowatt projects on the Yunnan side of the Jinsha River Lower Reach Base have been completed and put into operation.

— Exploring new forms and models of business. In Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a number of scientific research achievements at the CTG Modern Energy Innovation Demonstration Park have been put into operation, setting many “national firsts” and “industry firsts.” In southern Fuyang, Anhui Province, a huge 650,000-kilowatt photovoltaic array has been built on the idle water surface of a former coal mining subsidence area, turning the governance problem of the subsidence area into a new economic growth point.

Faced with the tasks and challenges of energy green and low-carbon transformation, CTG has continued to demonstrate its strong scientific and technological innovation capabilities.

On June 24, 2024, the project “Complete Technologies, Equipment and Industrialization for Safe and Efficient Offshore Wind Power Development” declared by CTG as the first completing unit won the first prize of the 2023 National Science and Technology Progress Award. The award-winning achievements have been applied in more than 70% of China’s offshore wind power projects, supporting the construction of more than 24 million kilowatts of offshore wind power.

In January this year, the flexible DC project at the CTG Yunnan Mile Shidongshan Wind Farm was officially connected to the grid. It is also the world’s first flexible DC project using IGCT (Integrated Gate-Commutated Thyristor) devices and the world’s first using 6.5-kilovolt power semiconductor devices. The innovative achievements of the project focus on the localization and lightweight requirements of converter valves for flexible DC transmission systems. The successful demonstration application of the IGCT-based flexible DC transmission system has promoted its large-scale engineering application in scenarios such as desert-Gobi-wasteland bases, offshore wind power, and urban power grids.

The integrated development of the energy industry and digital technology is an important engine for promoting the upgrading of China’s energy industry foundation and the modernization of the industrial chain in the new era, and it is of great significance for enhancing the core competitiveness of the energy industry and promoting the high-quality development of energy.

At the offshore wind farms and photovoltaic power stations operated by CTG, digital twin technology is used to monitor equipment status in real time, and big data ensures the long-term safe and stable operation of the power stations. The efficient operation mode of “unmanned on-duty and few people on duty” has become a reality.

The wave of energy transformation surges forward. As a representative of the “national team,” CTG continues to climb higher mountains and sail farther seas, empowering a better future with inexhaustible green electricity.

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG has actively helped build a safer, greener, and more efficient new power system.

In Siziwang Banner, Ulanqab, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a core area of Class I wind energy resources and a high-value solar energy area in China, the CTG Ulanqab New Generation Grid-Friendly Green Power Station Demonstration Project is the country’s first new energy project to realize integrated intelligent centralized control of wind, solar, and energy storage, and also the first new energy station with an energy storage capacity of up to gigawatt-hours. Through “high-proportion energy storage” and “intelligent regulation,” the project realizes grid-friendly functions such as measurable, controllable, adjustable, and supportable wind-solar-storage power stations, participates in peak power supply and system peak shaving of the western Inner Mongolia power grid, and improves the safe and reliable replacement level of new energy.

In October this year, the world’s first “two-tower one-machine” concentrating solar power (CSP) storage station—the CTG Hengji Nengmai Guazhou 700,000-kilowatt “CSP + storage” project—had its two heat-absorbing towers about 200 meters high lit up simultaneously, entering full-system commissioning. After being put into operation, the power station will promote the development of joint dispatch models of multiple energy sources such as complementary regulation between CSP, photovoltaic, and wind power, and is expected to provide 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity to the grid annually.

As the currently most mature, economically advantageous, and large-scale developable green, low-carbon, clean, and flexible regulating power source, pumped storage has played an important supporting role in adapting to the leapfrog development of new energy and accelerating the construction of a new power system. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG has given full play to its advantages in hydropower technology, talents, and management, and has made steady and orderly layout of pumped storage.

In Anji, Zhejiang Province, the birthplace of the “Two Mountains” concept, the Changlongshan Pumped Storage Power Station has continuously played its role as a “power bank” since its commissioning and has delivered a satisfactory performance in several major power supply “examinations.” In the summer of 2025, Zhejiang Province experienced continuous high temperatures, and the power grid load remained at a high level. The Changlongshan Pumped Storage Power Station strictly followed grid dispatching, continuously carried out inspections and checks, reasonably arranged unit maintenance and defect elimination, improved equipment reliability, and fully ensured the safe and stable operation of the East China Power Grid.

The Zhejiang Tiantai Pumped Storage Power Station, a key national project during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, is sprinting toward the commissioning of its first unit this year. Not long ago, Unit 1 successfully completed its first rotation and entered water commissioning, marking the gradual shift of the power station from the construction stage to the commissioning and operation stage.

CTG has continuously carried out scientific and technological research and technological innovation in ultra-high head units, large-capacity units, advanced materials, and intelligent construction of pumped storage, and has effectively promoted technological progress in the pumped storage industry during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period: the Tiantai Pumped Storage Power Station has a rated head of 724 meters, the highest in the world, and a single-unit capacity of 425,000 kilowatts, ranking first in China, and has successfully developed and applied 1000-megapascal high-strength steel in hydropower engineering; Units 5 and 6 of the Changlongshan Pumped Storage Power Station have a rated speed of 600 revolutions per minute, with the world’s highest comprehensive design and manufacturing difficulty coefficient and leading technical level in the world.

Up to now, more than 10 pumped storage projects under CTG with obvious location advantages, sufficient necessity, and good grid connection and consumption conditions have entered the construction stage, with a total installed capacity of about 19 million kilowatts.

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, CTG has actively expanded the application scenarios of new energy storage, contributing to the development pattern of new energy storage of “applying one generation, demonstrating one generation, and pre-researching one generation.”

In August this year, China’s largest all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) solar-storage integrated project—the CTG Xinjiang Jimusaer 1000,000-kilowatt photovoltaic + 200,000-kilowatt/1,000,000-kilowatt-hour VRFB integrated project—launched its first charging test, taking a key step toward achieving the project’s commissioning goal.

Also in Xinjiang, the country’s largest “linear Fresnel” CSP comprehensive energy demonstration project—the CTG Hami 1000,000-kilowatt “CSP + photovoltaic” project—achieved full-capacity grid connection in September this year. “Linear Fresnel” is an important concentrating solar energy utilization technology in the field of CSP storage and one of the most cutting-edge CSP technical routes. The grid connection of this project provides practical support for the development of CSP storage from demonstration projects to industrialization.