Building the world's largest (and most controversial) power plant - Alex Gendler
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- čas přidán 9. 12. 2020
- Explore the creation of China’s Three Gorges Dam, and find out how the hydroelectric plant generates its power.
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In 2018, a single power plant produced more energy than the world’s largest coal-powered and gas-powered plants combined. China’s Three Gorges Dam relies on running water, and is capable of producing more energy than any other power plant on Earth. So what allows Three Gorges to generate all this power? And how do hydroelectric plants work in the first place? Alex Gendler investigates.
Lesson by Alex Gendler, directed by Franz Palomares.
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Two fish swam into a concrete wall, one turn his head to the other and said "DAM"
If Biden steals this election from trump the fish will done for
ヾ(^▽^*)))
But that's why people build fish ladders (things on the side of the dam that are like "steps" for the fish)
@@jjjjj6424 what
@@jjjjj6424 bruh
@@EvanRustMakes it was a typo i ment to put the fish will BE done for not will done for
“This dam rivalry” that could be misinterpreted.
Some say puns are the lowest form of humor but I guess I am down for that
only fitting recommendation for this comment is the song “Dam Damn” by Päter its great!
Well dam
Those dam dams...
*cough* pjo dam jokes *cough*
The guy that worked on that animation deserves a Oscar, that what arts is.
But can't add captions.........
@@theinvinciblechannelwithsi9895 The problem is that CZcams used to have community captions, but they decided that it was bad for some reason. Now, video creators have to add captions themselves, which is rare, sadly.
@@absolutewisp thanks man and youtube did a really bad step...
Multiple ppl worked on tgis dude
*an oscar :D
This video had amazing background music
The mix of Chinese and Brazilian tunes by the end is just incredibly catchy
Yeah! What's the name of the music?
@@saswotlamichhane5862 A custom one, I suppose?
Did anyone actually manage to find it?
my father worked for almost 40 years in Itaipu Dam. I remember as a kid when my friends' dads (my dad's colleagues) travelled to China to work as consultants. Every year we cheered for Itaipu to keep surpassing Three Gorges. We've since moved away from Itaipu and my father's retired now, but every time we see someone mention Itaipu my father says "your grandpa worked there as a constructor. He always said there was a part of him there. Now, there's a part of me aswell"
Your family's affinity with Itaipu Dam is truly remarkable. While politicians use these constructions as political tools, it's people like your father that commit entire lives to it.
@@falsch4761 I really hope you get to. It is an absolute modern marvel, especially when you consider everything that the corporation that owns and runs Itaipu does for conservation efforts in the area.
Is crazy that the world is still amazed with hydroelectric power, here in Brazil we almost rely only on it. Itaipu dam produces full energy for a whole country (Paraguay) and for most of Brazil, and we built it in 1984!!
A fellow Brazilian I see
I'm also astonished by such a powerful source of energy
Same in Quebec, almost 100% of our energy is from hydroelectric power.
Agora eu não entendo uma coisa. Temos uma barragem capaz de gerar energia mais do que a barragem chinesa, que é capaz de gerar energia suficiente pra alimentar NY por quase dois anos. Mas recentemente o estado do Amapá ficou vários dias sem energia elétrica. Ou falta de energia no Amapá foi por outro motivo?
@@gomes6422 o problema é na distribuição de energia, não na geração
My house probably has more things in it that run on electricity than your entire favela
I love this animation.
We all do
@@airplanes_aren.t_real indeed
I'd really love to learn how to do this
yeah!
So do i
Captions were not synced properly
Ikr messed me up at first
Thank you for letting us know! We are working to get them fixed.
@@TEDEd i think you are aware of the earth time was reduced due to dam.
@@TEDEd quick to resolve the issue, love that
@@explorelonelyplanet3696 that is a massively oversimplified statement
My parents were the engineers for the Three Gorges Dam, no matter what, I am proud of what they've achieved. It is indeed an engineering miracle!
@Dreadnought 1997 why so rude?
@Dreadnought 1997 you're just making assumptions
I'm pretty sure plenty more than two engineers worked on this project.
How can that be true? You're on western youtube. Defo lying
@@VitorGiannasi he probably meant one of the engineers.
A similar controversial dam called Tehri Dam garnered massive criticism. Uttarakhand is prone to earthquakes and this dam is the tallest dam in India. Some say that if it breaks, half of the state will be flooded.
Same is the case with mullaperiyar. Starts and ends in Kerala and constructed during British period. Needs a lot of repair but Kerala has no acces to even a single drop of it and have to go to supreme court almost every time to get access for inspection and repair or even to reduce the water level.
If breaks, midland Kerala wipe out.
three gorges can flood everything if hit by a missile (literally impossible to defend)
great warning if china gonna go to war
"this dam(n) rivalry is far from over"
I haven’t heard “turbine attached to a generator” since 7th grade science class and now I have PTSD.
i thought i was the only one😭😭
Lol
@@globisdead lets all be honest PTSD is more common than anyone thought
lol
7th grade? In Canada, this is taught in high school. Lenz’s laws and left hand rules.
The animation and the voice of narrator are Damn relaxing...😌😌
It's the Asian background music
Dam*
The animation guy always gets praise, this time lets appreciate the music guy too... The Brazilian and Chinese mix at the end was amazing!
Do you know what's it is called?
@@guganesan.ilavarasan nope
The purpose of the dam isn't only for powering, it's also for controlling the flood. It has been doing a great job at it this summer.
I thought CZcams was banned in China.
@@herp_derpingson yes it is
@@herp_derpingson It is but Chinese people here can still receive news from China. My hometown would have been flooded this year if it wasn't for this dam.
@@herp_derpingson not really, it depends from time to place within China
@@gigibyte_ Doesn't that flood the other parts instead? like the parts before the dam?
This animation is so satisfying to watch.
Guys I think TED ED just swore
“This damn rivalry”
Tell the teacher.
The touch of Samba music to the ost whenever Itaipu is mentioned was astonishing
Do you know what music is played in this video?
2:36
They did this in the South to my family’s farm. My great grandpa’s childhood home is there, interesting to see
I'm in Tennessee and the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) did this to an entire town right near me. Old Butler.
As a Congolese the , Inga dams are far yet from being finished. With the corruption killing the country I don't see any developments there it has needed renovations ever since but nothing till now. Sorry for the rant
czcams.com/video/6achMwLwPUE/video.html
There's also the impact on wild life, some scientists believe the constuction of Three Gorges was a signifigant contributing factor to the extinction of the Chinese River Dolphin, one of the few fresh water dolphins in the world.
can we really weigh this against the thousands of lives saved from floods downstream? 150 species go extinct every day worldwide, strange nobody cares quite so much about those
@@goldsilvervscrisiscollapse4320 I like dolphins more
Actually, the number of Yangtze dolphins have been steadily in decline before the dam was built. Saying the dam contributed to the extinction of the dolphin significantly is an overstatement.
@@ThePickledsoul they can record their genomes and 3D print some later.
The dolphins was declared extinct in 2004. Oh, and currently Yangtze River is currently in a 10-year no fishing period (illegal fishing punishable by jail time). Yes it is "cruel" and lot of fishermen lost their jobs, but fishes also need a break... (Of course the government have a employment assistance plan for the affected fishermen's)
I'm from Chile, here we have some dams here from rivers flowing from the Andean Mountains and in spite of the power they produce, the enviormental impact over native flora and fauna are devastating bc of rivers flowing with less water.
You may be a very chile dude
It is incorrect to think that the dam causes less flow in the river. The water flow shall be the same. The water only passes the turbines. The water flow in = the water flow out.
It is not the lack of flowing water but sediments that are blocked by dams that cause damage to the downstream environment.
@@robw6954 Do the fish just swim through the turbines?
@@calvinhoward3808 there will be fish passages constructed next to the dam
okay cool but can we talk about how good this animation is... Ted-Ed never fails to deliver. Thank you.
We are talking about it. It’s literally talked about in *every single video*
@@Brandon-hn5xy thank you for sharing your thoughts but I was talking about this video in particular, the one I replied to...I didn't know that when someone comments it apparently applies to every other video as well...
Great productions, TED.Ed! Love all your stuff!
going straight to comment section looking for dam jokes
Most arguments go, "DAMN YOU!" and "Damn you more!"
but this one is, "I dam me!" and "I damn me more"
I live near Foz do Iguaçu (city where Itaipu is located), lots of beautiful things around there, it's truly one of the most underrated travel destinations, so many unique cultural, natural and engineering wonders
As a Brazilian, I'm an Itaipu guy, through and through!
What a calm yet informative video, I like this channel. Congrats Ted Ed!!
Wonderful and clear explanation. Well done. Continue to present the best
"This dam rivalry" , genius
I'm glad you raised the issue of sustainable energy development at the end
Awesome animation. Thank you for the update, TED-Ed..!! :)
This is one of the few things I think China was right to do, the immense energy output was worth it.
The only thing I think they should have done differently was to put more effort into the relocation program as to make it not so difficult for those being relocated.
If China and the rest of the world want to swap from coal and fossil fuels we're going to need dams like these.
Some may want to critique the idea of destroying historical monuments. And I do think that's a valid reason, but in doing so we're also creating more issues as there will be less space alloted for progression and more space reserved by historical monuments that we refuse to remove. It would seem heartless to destroy it anyway, but in terms of advancing humanity, a huge focus on the past is actually quite harmful if not handled properly.
수력 발전 댐은 정말로 단순하게 태양으로 부터 생성된 물입자의 위치에너지를 다시 우리가 쓸 수 있는 전기에너지로 변환하는 과정이라 생각했는데 그 과정이 단순하지 않고 많으 노력이 필요하다는 사실을 깨닫게 해 준 고마운 영상이었습니다.
What a magnificent animation! Truly breathtaking.
These artists you guys have are crazy amazing
Dam, that’s a lot of energy!!
I thought the controversial part would be about the rumors about the 3 gorges dam integrity, and maybe also about the ecological effect dams have on the environment.
It because on Google map the picture is distorted (China uses a different GPS coordinates decoding method so massive structure will look distorted). Taiwan government using it as anti-PRC propaganda for years...
Yes there is massive ecological and environmental impact, villagers had to relocate and temples had to be moved. But the flood controlling capacity (most of China's economy centers and field are in south east) and power generation outweighed the cost... Imagine all that lower been generated by "clean" coal power plants...
@@AaronShenghao indeed. I think it is intellectually disingenuous for TED to call this the "Most controversial" power plant, when literally this year the massive floods in china would have been far worse and killed thousands were it not for the dam... lives, power and green tech vs the immediate vicinity's environment, which will change to favor other animals- it's clean water ffs, and the environment has already recovered
Versus the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown which radiates the groundwater many years later and from which many tons of radioactive material have been released into the oceans was less controversial? How about Chernobyl? Seems to me China can't catch a break on any Western media...
@@AaronShenghao ofc it outweighs the cost when you didn't take accounts of human and environmental cost in the accounting. And what kind of excuses is that? Different GPS decoding method? Next time you will tell me the high amount of CO2 generation from china is not because they burn a lot of coal, but because they use different math formula
@@goldsilvervscrisiscollapse4320 In defense of Fukushima, that reactor meltdown happened because of severe incompetency and shortcut taking. For a reactor meltdown to happen, many things have to go wrong first.
@@evankurniawan1311 Per capita, China population produce less CO2 than the US and the developed world. They consume less meat and per household, consume less energy than an average US house. It's called proportion. If you have 1.3 Billion people, of course you produce more CO2, the point you should focus is on how much each person generate.
By the way, also take into account that much of China and India CO2 and energy requirements are outsourced contamination from YOUR demand and consumption. Where do you think the contamination from extracting rare earths to produce your iPhone is left when the product arrive at your country? Who deal with that contamination? Big words for a little mind. The problem is more complex than just pointing fingers when is your own consumerism is the driving force behind worldwide contamination.
Do you remember when China banned plastic waste imports, which came from developed countries from their fake recycling strategy, where it went? Back to their country of origin? No, it was reallocated in other poor countries. When China is no longer profitable to produce your clothes, the batton pass from YOUR contamination will be taken by India, Bangladesh, etc.
Having seen it in person. I can vouch it was a marvel 🤩
Every video has its own animation style which is just amazing
The amount of water held behind the 3 Gorges dam changed Earth's day length by changing its angular moment of inertia.
czcams.com/video/6achMwLwPUE/video.html
What? Sounds unreal
Source?
@@djtan3313 , I believe the Yangtze's source is the mountains near the Tibetan border, but for more info about the dam changing Earth's day length, search "three gorges dam day length" and read away.
Nasa are also in on it.
Apparently, Earth's rotation was slowed, something I couldn't remember when I originally posted.
@@massimookissed1023 cheers
"Most controversial"
Literally every nuclear power plant on earth: "Am I a joke to you?"
And it's controversial just because China built it.😂
nuclear power plants are only controversial because of the publics mis-understanding of it. nuclear power plants literally cant explode and the only time they have is chernobyl and that was communisms fault
nuclear is the safest actually
@@taoxu9235 it was controversial in china as well, the usually mostly unanimous NPC only passed 65 : 45
@@recordkeepingandinformatio8206”65 : 45
“ source please?
Easily one of the best dam videos Ted-Ed has produced yet.
This really helped with my work thanks
It was DAMn hard to build the dam🌊🌊. Its so huge that due to large amount of water built up behind, it slowed down the rotation of earth by 0.06 microseconds......
Which one?
@@airplanes_aren.t_real The three gorges dam 🌊
Dam, thats huge
I see Brazil and the national wonder of my country that is Itaipu, I upvote. An excelent video like always ted-ed!
Itaipu is a bilateral DAM it belongs to both Brazil and Paraguay
The art in this is incredible
Your videos r didactic and more simply understandable. I wish I discovered you guys earlier 😄
You forgot to mention, that the water mass of this reservoir is so huge, that it effects the rotation speed of the Earth!
that's a myth, no scientific explaination for that
@@udin2842 L=Iω
Here you go scientific proof of that.
I know you aren't smart enough to know it but you can use Google kid.
@@morningstar3997 it's just an equation. equation doesn't make it real. it's like saying time travel can be done because it's proven by an equation. did you forget about ocean? if dams can slow the world rotation down what do you thing can ocean do?
and just like what you've said, you aren't smart enough. so don't brag about something you don't understand KID.
it’s 12am and watching this instead of doing my school work
Lemme guess, southeast asian?
AYY IT'S 12 AM IN HK TOO
@@albinocake nope India is situated in South East Asia and it's 9:36 pm here
@@albinocake yeah singapore
@el zira aprillyani_58 😂😂 goodluck 🤞
The BGM is on point.
I love your videos can’t wait for the next one
The subtitles seem to be off by twenty-something seconds
They’re working on it, they mentioned it in another comment!
That's damn gorgeous.
I wouldn't mind being displaced (since it's for greater good) as long as the government provides satisfactory relocation program.
great video and all, but that music towards the end sorta bopped though.
They didn’t mention the ecological impact. The baiji, a river dolphin, is believed to have become extinct in part because of the Three Gorges Dam.
At least I heard there are photography contests every year downstream to raise awareness of the issue, held by a committee dedicated to the protection of this particular species. Or it might be the other river.
More human lives were saved as a result of building the dam. You mad bro?
Any help the dam provided is irrelevant TBH. At worst it sped the extinction up by a few years.
People fishing is what truly killed the river dolphin off. And poor people on a river aren't going to stop fishing just because they accidentally kill river dolphins while fishing for their survival.
us.whales.org/2012/10/18/the-baiji-the-first-dolphin-to-be-declared-extinct-in-modern-times/
@@lordgarion514 2 species of animal go extinct every day and it’s just a dolphin
@@Imperium10
Actually, there is no single number.
The estimated range is between 200, and 2,000 species per year go extinct.
And that is based on the estimate of 2 million species in total. Could be a lot less, and could be a lot more.
And all of that is absolutely irrelevant. We've added to the number of extinctions, which screws up other things. Not to mention we've permanently reduced the numbers of wild animals by an insane amount.
"Globally, monitored population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Planet Report 2020. Populations in Latin America and the Caribbean have fared worst, with an average decline of 94%"
You haven't studied this nearly enough to be talking about it the way you are.
When we need Kurzgesagt and Ted Ed the most; they come like legends
I just came from kurzgesast 🤣
You can see them too? 👁.👁
( ͝° ͜ʖ͡°)ᕤ
Somebody says it will break down, but it's been 27 years and it still works...
Great video - thanks:)
This video overlooks all of the species in the Yangtze that declines or went extinct due to the dam.
nah, the floods could have been far worse and killed thousands of people there if its not for the dam, if the tradeoff is between those species and the human lives, then you know the answer
@@Ds10lm I do know the answer. Not the humans.
@@bobwilson679 care to elaborate?
How many animals are dying or going to go extinct due to not using renewable energy?
@@Ds10lm Sure. If the trade off is between those species and human lives, then the answer is not the human lives. It is those species. I hope I spelled it out clearly enough for you to understand this time, since you were clearly incapable of understanding what I said before.
Hearing about all these dams destroying natural and cultural sites was depressing. Dams still have problems with silt...over time, the reservoir fills up because the river's natural flow was disrupted and sites downstream lack vital sediment that keeps them healthy and helps prevent damage from rising seas.
but dam still far better than coal for generating electricity, it won't cause any harm if it maintain properly. so i prever losing cultural sites than losing oxygen
@@udin2842 and holding the oxygen , that causing unprecedented heatwave and severe droughts like never before across the planet...😮
I'm biggest fan of the man behind animations of TED ED!!
4:54 "This dam rivalry is far from over" 😂
Dam everybody's making Percy Jackson references here without even knowing it😂
Missed reading those books! The "dam" scene was iconic!
Now that you said it the dam jokes crack me up even more XD
The dam gift shop, and the dam snack bar lol
Finally I found my section, welcome demigod-friends
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Because of TedEd I've come to realise..
Music is at it's best when it accompanies wonderful narration.
The animation was even more better than the paintings produced by all of the finest artists of the world combined.
I thought this would talk about how for a while now the dam has been showing signs of damage and wear that could be disastrous
Ya same wimme
It was not a real concern. Some Taiwanese and FaLungong followers spread the rumor.
That's anti-China propaganda you're talking about, according to them, this dam is on the brink of collapse every single summer.
Ok, I was just sitting replying to every early comment, next Ted Ed I might do this again.
Then I’ll make sure to be there with ya :)
@@Ishfar0 are u me??🧐🧐
@@Farhan-kw3pg wtf bro...
lol 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Funniest thing to happen in MONTHS!!
A doppelgänger, but on the internet :D
@@Farhan-kw3pg btw you should center out your SAITAMA profile picture ... it’s off center so...
BE A BETTER DOPPELGÄNGER
@@Ishfar0 what's a doppelganger
Damn... That's big!
Itaipú (from Guaraní, 'stone that sounds') is a binational dam in Paraguay and Brazil
What did the fish say when it hit the wall
Dam
lmao
xd
Lmao!
PUN CITY!!!
Kurz and ted-ed videos on the same day!
Tall videos are better
Although this video was just amazing, even better than kurzgesagt’s video!
The artwork is fantastic, but I would love to see some actual images of the dams too. Luckily, I know a search engine that'll do the trick.
Awesome background music
Fun fact: By shifting a significant mass of water, the dam has literally SLOWED THE ROTATION OF THE EARTH!
Fun fact #2: in the event of a war, if the dam was bombed, the catastrophe would be equivalent to that of a WMD, nuclear force would then be cleared to use in retaliation.
@@motherflerkentannhauser8152 so boys in WWIII WE NEED TO GET SOME TNT
People: Have heated debates about sports or something
Me: 4:54
Yes
What a good video and animation.
Best voice
In a nutshell: three gorges is huge, but Itaipu still overcomes it
Forced displacement is one of the least documented atrocity. Even now, especially in developing and under developed countries.
River linking and dam projects are a feather on administrations crown but mostly indigenous communities, weakest in society, get affected the most.
At least this one is one of many ways China trying to stop climate change... Unlike certain nation of "free" back padding the world for last four years...
4:53 This damn rivalry lol
4:54 "Dam Rivarly" lol xD
Are you a beaver cuz DAM
I didn’t even read the title, I just saw that it was a Ted-Ed
Love your animation
In order to produce more electricity, the water level should be as high as possible but on the other hand it cannot hold additional rainwater to prevent flooding
“Prevents flood during rainy seasons” yet massive floods have persisted throughout the Yangtze this year
Well it was also hundred year records breaking rain... At least it helped mitigated down stream flooding
Notice how if anyone posts anything questioning the three gorges dam the bots come out?
@@NPC13377 Oh totally, I was hoping to find some here by making this comment
why was there absolutely no mention of the effect it has on villages and other countries down the river. for example, what about in Vietnam when no one can fish because the dam has "stopped the flooding", effectively stopping any water flow to these fishing villages. This has a MUCH bigger impact on neighbouring, less-off, countries
You should first search the Three Gorges Dam on the map to see where it is, and then search the Yangtze River to see where the river is, and you will know that this dam has nothing to do with countries such as Vietnam and India, it is all in In China, the end point flows directly to the sea.
Damn, this is pretty good!
Very informative 👏 👌 👍 😀
Can't wait for all the "Dam" puns
He didn't included the environmental impact of the dam.
Many fish species extinction.
that dawn blade spinning around
I love that im learning about china early on in my freshman year and how everything works there its so cool
Damn dam rivalry
In this video, Hydro electric is made to appear "good" when used in conjunction with "sustainble". What the video doesn't tell you, in details, is that the 3 gorges dam destroyed the water eco-system. Effectively killing many larger sized fish. They constantly have to breed new fish to maintain the fish population for mosquito control.
You could say that with any dam project so why single out the Three Gorges Dam?
I said hydro electric in general
Three gorges dam: exists
r/noncredibledefense: do you want to explode?
I love the voice. I love to animation. I love the story.
Love your voice and god level animation