China’s Mega Projects: Energy

[Music] [Music] [Music] what drives our vehicles forward and heats our rooms and cold winters what keeps the huge factories running ceaselessly at high speeds it all depends on energy today we will take you into a new field to reveal how energy is driving the rapid development of China's economy and the challenges that must be overcome to keep the wheels of the country turning under pressure for the ever greater need for environmental protection [Music] the Gobi Desert in northwest China a group of engineers are searching for the enormous energy buried beneath the desert sand yuan hood Zhang is a veteran blasting engineer with 37 years of experience today he and his team will use 1418 tons of explosives to blow to smithereens a 38 meter thick layer of rock in an area the size of five football fields at the same time they must make sure that what goes up comes down in all the right places the charges cannot be set off simultaneously which would result in destructive seismic waves mr. Tom that approaches the wooby dog it's cheaper - are you a teacher katana activate we can further contain yogacara the solution is to detonate the explosives in batches there are 781 blasting holes divided into 12 groups each group will be detonated less than one hundredth of a second after the previous group to make this work the blasting team needs electronic detonators with an encoder the operator can accurately control the ignition of thousands of electronic detonators in milliseconds the blasting interval is set to eight milliseconds the blast time is set for just after 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon [Music] the Chinese have invested billions of dollars to build facilities in this arid inland area beside the desert to produce this the coal found here is of superior quality while having a very high heat value it contains less sulfur and is therefore less damaging to the environment today coal is still the main energy that drives more than half of China's economy this is one of the opencast mines operating in China the coal is of quality and the seams are very thick coal seams of over 15 meters in thickness are regarded as super-high seams across the world and the seams here are up to 30 meters thick of course in order to mine this precious coal the upper layer of rock needs to be removed funnier before receiving the formal command of detonation the blasting team has carried out the final checks on their electronic detonators through an encoder by 4:00 p.m. the billions of dollars worth of equipment in the mining area have already been moved to safety [Music] as usual UN as own to the blasting area to check on the results [Music] try this show quick no I didn't um yeah 20 sir it seems yuan is quite satisfied with the result of today's blasting after removing the gravel a new coal seam reveals itself half an hour later the smoke is cleared then the mining operations resume [Music] [Music] the daily output of coal from this man-made Canyon is over 100,000 tons it could generate enough power to supply one modern family for 10,000 years [Music] but it's just one percent of the daily output of China Cola is the primary position in China's energy structure because of that it is particularly important to use coal efficiently one of the most efficient ways is to build large power plants near to the coal fields this reduces transportation costs and keeps pollution to the remote areas far from the cities the West of China has a substantial coal reserves but it is very short of water and that is a big issue when it comes to cooling these power plants done one long head of maintenance is going to carry out a special project today to build a thermal power plant in a desert was impossible in the past because a traditional thermal power plant needs so much water for cooling the boiler cannot operate without it [Music] however China has begun to build large thermal power plants in the desert because it has found a solution the secret lies in these passive cooling towers which do not use water as the hot air rises from the top of the tower cooler air is drawn in at its base over an array of radiators someone Long's job is to keep the radiators clean he has to clean nearly 1 million square meters of radiators with the least amount of water he can [Music] to achieve a better cooling effect the 132 radiators are distributed in a v-shape as this type of passive cooling tower is not directly need large quantities of water it is possible to build them in the desert [Music] the East of China is home to just under seventy percent of the country's population and over 80 percent of its economy however most of the new energy resources are in the West thousands of kilometers away the energy transportation has been a problem for the country for quite a long time china plans to build more large power plants around the coal fields of western china convert coal into electricity and then let the power grid carry it to the east it is the largest energy transmission project in human history [Music] today the project begins a new phase the installation of the conductors at the foot of pylon number 323 the linesman are getting ready to join the conductors high up in the air [Music] [Music] this is the world's longest and highest voltage power transmission line it starts in the jungle basin in the Far West of China and runs for three thousand three hundred twenty four kilometers across deserts mountains canyons to the densely populated East in eight years China has built more than thirty thousand kilometres of high-voltage lines to establish the world's largest energy transmission network to increase the system's efficiency the voltage needs to be raised the 1.1 mega volt high-voltage line is the highest in the world at present it can transmit the energy generated by 80 thousand tons of coal over a distance of three thousand kilometers in a day to ensure the transmission runs smoothly and efficiently the 20,000 conductor joints have to be connected perfectly the cables are connected by intense pressure first the outer aluminum wires are stripped back to expose the steel core then the two ends of steel core are inserted into a metal sleeve a hydraulic clamp presses hard on the sleeve to hold the two sections of steel cable firmly together after the steel core is joined a larger sleeve is used to connect the outer aluminum wires the procedure seems simple enough but it's quite another thing to do it 100 metres up in the air with everything swaying in the breeze the workers need to hold two ends of the cables carefully and avoid damaging the conductor's while dealing with the five tonne tensile drag on the cable to manage this they must use a special cable combining the eyeball the job not only requires concentration but also a head for Heights [Music] it will take six months to complete the new 3324 kilometer line and this is just the beginning several more are being planned to follow [Music] early November a deep-sea engineering vessel is anchored off the coast of South China the sea is calm but captain Jin region is not he needs a storm and he has already been waiting for three days the new ship has been built at a cost of two hundred million dollars the waters around China are greatly affected by the western Pacific ocean currents these prevent divers from conducting deep-sea seabed operations this ship has been built to deal with that challenge thus to test the new ship's ability to work in rough sea conditions captain Jin's crew must wait for some strong waves historically it has been very difficult for China to develop deep-sea oil and natural gas resources hopefully this will change if this new ship tests successfully it depends on whether the advanced equipment on board function is intended the expected wind and waves do not arrive captain jian has to look for another storm and the teacher kind of thinking that mean only the worst Dow new latest weather forecast leads the captain in the Navigator to choose a new test area [Music] after a night sailing the ship reaches its destination as the sea gets up the test commences the key requirement for accurate underwater operations is that the equipment is stable even ooh verd in order to achieve this the engineering ship has to remain in a fixed geographical position against the flowing currents and heavy seas this is done by the approach power compensator system when waves drive the ship off position the compensator system instantly starts the corresponding thruster to offset the force of the sea this keeps the ship in a steady position however when the ship rolls or is lifted by the waves the thrusters alone are not sufficient but this new ship has another piece of special equipment the world's largest crane with an automatic height compensation system [Music] the high power crane is able to lift up to 400 tons as the ship rises and falls in the swell the crane automatically detects the speed and direction of the movement it then reacts instantly to compensate for this by retracting or paying out its cable lines or by turning its lifting arm oh my gosh oh yeah all right you take a poncho y'all bad will go to make full use of this right see conditions the test must continue well into the night [Music] images from the underwater camera show the 400-ton test box only move slightly despite the surging waves it is well within the control range everyone is very pleased with the result with the advance of deep-sea engineering technology mankind has made a further step in acquiring resources from the oceans the energy stored in the deep sea is beyond imagination a research team departs by helicopter for an offshore platform two hours later the team have arrived at their destination blue whale one the largest deep-sea operations platform in the world it has been in the sea for several months already the flames show that it is working busily below the surface the burn off may look fairly normal but in fact it represents a world first [Music] China has become the first country to successfully mine fire ice from below the sea floor fire ice also called combustible ice is a common name for methane hydrate it exists as a flammable solid in which methane is trapped in a crystal structure of water originally it was assumed only to exist in the outer reaches of space but it has been found to exist in extraordinary quantities on earth below the seabed it forms the largest reserve of fossil fuel on the planet however extracting it is no simple matter to date reliable mining techniques have yet to be developed a previous mining test only lasted for 12 days before it failed the Chinese research team has made a key breakthrough in continuous and controllable mining of fire ice the natural gas hydrate pilot production team have been mining for 60 days a new world record having gathered extensive data the team decided to stop the test how are you - we don't which end up when you tweet you you commit your way what Shambaugh not haha can't you see horses happen time you'll do well by making money the engineers switch off the valves their breakthrough and mining technology could have a profound impact on the future of energy production [Music] you the rapid development of China's economy demands more energy the use of traditional fossil fuels will cause enormous environmental damage China's making conscious efforts to increase the proportion of clean energy in its energy mix waterpower will make an important contribution this is the construction site of the wood dong the hydropower station it is one of the four cascaded hydropower stations in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River the excavation works have been completed to build a huge facility on the mountainside to take the giant hydraulic turbines the workers now are casting concrete to build the dam at the end of June the usually hot dry weather turns to continuous rainfall this is bad news for chief casting engineer Yong Yong Yong the papad on the free shi Shan change over to the difference loader usually though it won't be imported oh- on Charles Roger that's who the engineers are planning to cast a seamless concrete dam across the world concrete fracture is a recognized technical bottleneck the larger the project the more serious the problem there's an engineer saying that every Dam has fractures it will take 2.91 million cubic meters of concrete to cast the wudong Dam the plan calls for a wall 275 meters high and between 12 and 51 meters thick [Music] to withstand the pressure from up to 270 meters depth of water the dam cannot have even the slightest fracture the key to building a seamless dam lies in the continuous control system the casting process has to go on continuously for 33 months without interruption Jung must find a way to avoid the operation being blighted by rain as soon as possible young faces a dilemma if they cast in the rain the rain could alter the composition of concrete if the casting stops the concrete components cast before and after the rain will not marry properly to work through the rain or wait for it to clear up a decision has to be made lorraine is forecast to have cleared the area by the 29th youngling decides to start the operation as soon as it stops by 8:00 in the morning the wet weather has passed 30 minutes later the temperature controlled concrete arrives on site well Monsanto goshawk change in saying you change or to be poor - that's haunted Chinee shares a bottle woman who knew the heat generated as the concrete sets is the main cause of cracking as the concrete has almost no malleability and the internal and external cooling speeds are different this uneven thermal distribution is what can lead to cracks to build a seamless dam the key is to achieve precise temperature control during the continuous casting process Jung has made a timely decision and has successfully avoided the bad weather when the plant is completed the mighty river waters will be harnessed to the grid however rich water resources are not found everywhere the town of dulling ha in the west of China is short of water but has plenty of sunshine the power of the sunlight and the number of hours the Sun shines makes it an ideal site for solar arrays the maintenance engineers have to get to work early in the day the key components of the array are these mirrors when Sun rises over the Gobi Desert at 7:00 in the morning more than 20 thousand mirrors bounce the light with great precision to the top of a tower the heat generated there is absorbed by molten salt which takes the heat down into the plant where water is heated into steam which drives the turbines to generate electricity this way of generating electricity does not consume any fuel or discharged any emissions it is an ideal way of utilizing solar energy there is one catch though the Sun keeps changing its position if the alignment of the mirrors is slightly off there will not be enough energy to heat the salt atop the tower sufficiently to solve this problem China has developed a precise sunlight tracking system for this tower type of photo thermal power plant controlled by a computer the 20,000 mirrors reflect the sunlight to the top of the tower when the nearing accuracy the conditions of the region lend themselves to solar power general but there's more than one ways to turn rays into vaults not far away another solar power plant ten times of its size is under construction it is a trough type photothermal power plant unlike the tower type power plant it collects the heat of sunlight through curved mirrors [Music] however both systems rely on precise solar tracking therefore quality control manager gülen's wit monitors the installation of every trough concentrator a trough concentrator is made up of perfectly curved mirrors they track the Sun under the control of computer if a parabolic solar trough is not smooth the reflected light will not be accurately focused the installation must again be done to very precise tolerances so what is happen in Hawaii hum the area of each parabolic trough is 69 square meters [Music] after installation is completed the mirrors will be aligned to within less than one millimeter this plant will have 9120 solar troughs generating 50,000 kilowatts per hour China's currently installed solar power capacity exceeds 70 million kilowatts accounting for one-fifth of the world's solar generation capacity more and more ways to utilize solar energy will revolutionize China's supply of clean energy it's rapid development shows China's genuine determination to change its energy structure but there are other emission-free energy sources to be tapped into China is one of the nations that have taken the lead in seeking renewable energy from the wind giant turbines are a common feature of the landscape in many locations wind energy is often harvested more reliably at sea but the harsh environment has posed serious challenges to the installation and maintenance of the turbines previously when turbine generators were assembled on land and then ferried to their operating sites by semi submersible vessels for final erection the process was costly slow and resource intensive today offshore wind is looking more and more like the future of wind power breakthroughs and installation technology will greatly reduce the cost on the eastern coast of China one of these new installation methods is still being trialed to ensure tomorrow's trial runs smoothly Operations Director is working late checking all the the new method depends on this newly developed tool it can accurately set the angle of a blade at a height of nearly 100 meters so that it is perfectly aligned to the rotor hub if the machine works as it should the cost of installing offshore wind turbines will have by 11:00 at night the engineers have finished tweaking their setup the following day the crucial test will begin at 7:00 in the morning Oh Toronto Toronto rental idea two hours later a 50 meter long 20 ton blade is lifted to the hub now comes the tricky part the crew needs to marry the blades fastening bolts to the rotor hub 100 meter up in the air where the slightest breeze can push everything out of alignment this is when the new clamping system comes into its own it allows the operator precise control over the blades position and connected to the hub with pinpoint accuracy naughty naughty three hours later the rotor blade is successfully installed this new method of installation will dramatically reduce installation costs and put new wind in the sails of the offshore power generation industry in China the progress of science and technology drives energy development and a mixed source energy policy is the outcome on a remote Peninsula in eastern China the most advanced nuclear power unit in the world is being prepared to be put into operation the nuclear reaction releases enormous heat this is used to turn water into high-pressure steam which drives the generators to generate electricity the core of a nuclear power plant is the reactor unit this nuclear power unit is built to the world's highest safety standards before it starts operations many and repeated safety inspections have to be completed the engineers test a three-story high safety door it is made of special metals and manufactured with aerospace technologies like the safety door nearly one-third of the components in the plant are built with the ultimate goal of safety [Music] this 10 meter deep pool and the reaction chamber next to it are at the business end of things Superman created unit years with honey hole to the Milky Way tired to don't see duty that you receive with Allah in due course the pool will be filled with pure desalinated water the installation and replacement of the fuel rods will take place here chat about Chauvin ah maybe yeah listen the device ID [Music] Jonathan Davies inner heart solely on them yeah we am who utilize the truly the last round of inspections will soon be completed the nuclear fuel has long been ready in the fuel bin before loading they are stored at the highest level of security more than 100 fuel units sufficient to drive the plant are already in the fuel bin below this floor lies stockpiled the most powerful energy source mankind has yet been able to harness properly its energy density is 2.5 million times that of coal hallelujah [Music] the mechanical arm grasps the nuclear fuel assembly each is composed of 264 metal tubes filled with nuclear fuel before the startup they are not radioactive the operation is repeatedly rehearsed for four hours a day to make sure that when the plant starts work for real everything will run like clockwork nuclear plants run on nuclear fission the energy released by splitting atomic particles the energy released is extremely powerful but it also creates dangerous radioactive waste the Sun by contrast generates energy through nuclear fusion with none of this radioactive waste scientists have long dreamed of being able to emulate this on July 5th 2017 Chinese scientists released a 100 seconds of video which amazed the world's scientific community the video shows an experiment in which Chinese researchers managed to achieve a temperature of 50 million degrees sufficient to overcome the barriers to fusion reaction but no known material on the earth can handle even one ten thousandth of such a temperature what kind of vessel could contain such a high temperature reaction the answer is a magnetic field the coil enters a superconducting state at low temperatures producing the strongest magnetic field on the earth in this can float the materials for a fusion reaction suspended in the air [Music] judge a woman can they're going to other targets Portugal todos en 2008 edge really well in and all the Charlie I'm a Leo you do Sonali don't take all the window sorry dude intensity so it's I took your feet huh to decide the kikuna anemia then you go down to the generalizer afraid of it on one Yeomans I tan it's Diwali in here today titania vomits HIV encanta Omicron granddaughter hi ginger what a mutation woman don't worry John [Music] nuclear-power though controversial is still in its various forms the great hope for an endless reliable and clean source of energy natural renewables will also have their place in meeting the demands of tomorrow while the problems of today are ingeniously managed in the sparsely populated deserts of the West [Music] the search will go on for a better future in which needs are met and waste is eliminated it is a clean green future to which China is committed with all its energy [Music]

Channel: CGTN

Views: 407,359

Rating: 4.7967401 out of 5

Keywords: CCTV, CGTN, CCTVNews, ChinaNews, Documentary, project, manufacture, energy, China+food

Id: wfG0USvDTew

Length: 49min 4sec (2944 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/shadows888]

50 minutes long. some nice graphics

[u/lurker4lyfe6969]

For an authoritarian regime at least China doesn’t deny climate change and actively tries to promote fossil fuel usage. Just sayin