The turbine design for a massive hydroelectric power station – produced by Harbin Electrical Machinery Co – got the green light from China Three Gorges Corporation on May 29, according to local reports.

The turbine design sailed through the approval process, officials said, because of its sound design structure and performance, and high safety and reliability.

The turbines are 8.87 meters wide and 3.97m high, weighing a total of 338 tons. It is one of the most important components of the new power station.

Officials said the turbines will be installed in the world’s second biggest hydroelectric power station.

Baihetan Hydropower Station which lies on the Jinsha River, in the upper section of the Yangtze straddling Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, will be second only to the Three Gorges Dam in terms of total installed capacity when construction is finished.

With an installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts, harnessing sixteen 1,000mW generators, the project is expected to generate more than 60 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Construction of the main section of the hydropower station started on Aug 3, 2017.

Harbin Electrical Machinery Co, a pioneer generator producer founded in 1951, was chosen as the producer of eight 1,000-mW generators and the accessories for Baihetan Hydropower Station.

“The blade runner (turbine) of the 1,000 mW generator was competed over a 430-day period and around 100 processing steps,” said Zhang Rui, chairman of Harbin Electrical Machinery.

“The blade runner has improved a lot in terms of its structural layout and design, complying with local water flow conditions; and this is expected to improve stability,” Zhang added.

Harbin Electrical Machinery Co started research into the 1,000 mW generators 10 years ago. During that period, the generator producer has overcome several global technical barriers, with its main achievements including solving the problems of generator stability, electromagnetism, insulation technology and damage from fatigue. Officials said the work helped the producer to win 49 domestic patent licenses, of which, 16 were patents for inventions.

Currently, Harbin Electrical Machinery’s generator technologies are said to be among the most advanced on the market.