Promoted as the largest electric cruise ship in the world, the THREE GORGES 1 departed on its maiden voyage at Yichang in the Hubei province. The vessel has a battery capacity of 7.5 MW/h and can operate for around 60 miles on a single charge. The new ship is envisioned as the mascot for world tourism and shipping in a new greener era. The 16 meters wide and 100 meters long THREE GORGES 1 can house 1300 passengers. The vessel was developed by a subsidiary of the China Three Gorges Corp., China Yangtze Power. The development of this vessel involved research institutes such as the China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. and the Beijing University of Technology. This project was sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and cost a price of $23.5 million. Operations for the vessel will be checked by an automatic control system and intelligent management systems, reducing equipment degradation rates and reducing maintenance costs while also optimizing the vessel’s performance. It is also stated that the ship can reach full charge in 6 hours and will exclusively obtain power from the Three Gorges Dam Hydroelectric station, thus making the vessel truly zero emissions. This is a part of China’s larger goal of the complete electrification of the Yangtze River and the further expansion of this system to other inland routes. Cosco Shipping has recently announced that it will build and operate two electric container vessels on the Yangtze river by late 2023.
The Dam body was completed in 2006. The power plant of the dam project was completed and fully functional as of July 4, 2012, when the last of the main water turbines in the underground plant began production. Each main water turbine has a capacity of 700 MW. Coupling the dam’s 32 main turbines with two smaller generators (50 MW each) to power the plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of the dam is 22,500 MW.
