Aerial photo taken on July 9, 2020 shows water gushing out from the Lijiaxia Hydropower Station in northwest China's Qinghai Province. Qinghai is rich in solar and wind power. So far, the total installed renewable energy power generating capacity in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture has reached 15 million kilowatts and 10 million kilowatts respectively. (Xinhua/Wu Gang)

China's first and world's largest hydropower station with double-row placed turbines entered full operation in Northwest China's Qinghai Province on Tuesday, highlighting China's efforts in developing hydropower and clean energy.

Nestled in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the Lijiaxia Hydropower Station passed a 72-hour trial run of the unit-five and officially entered operation, making full use of local hydropower, which reached a designed full capacity of 2 million kilowatts.

The newly installed unit-five turbine has a single unit capacity of 400,000 kilowatts, and together with the other turbines, they formed the world's largest double-row placed turbines system, which marks a first time in China.

Using double-row placed turbines represents new innovation in the development of China's hydropower capabilities. Lijiaxia hydropower station has been operating for many years, this new addition can help the plant to deploy new unit quickly and economically, Wang Wanqiang, a specialist from China Railway Construction Co told Global Times on Thursday.

As an important part of China's ultra-high voltage transmission channel, Lijiaxia Hydropower Station supports the operation of photovoltaic and wind power generation, converting the power generation into safe and stable high-quality clean energy supply.

By the end of September this year, the Hydropower Station had generated a cumulative total of 142.482 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity, equivalent to 42.74 million tons of standard coal. It helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 113.9856 million tons.

China has been promoting the development of clean energy, with hydropower and wind turbines deployment rising as a total of China's overall energy mix. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022, China's hydropower generation reached 1,352.2 billion kilowatt-hours, accounting for 15.3 percent of the country's total power generation.