The first underground turbine of the Three Gorges hydropower project is expected to be put into operation in July 2011, according to the China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC). Five others will come on stream by 2012.

The underground power station will have a total capacity of 4.2m kW. When it is operational, the Three Gorges project, which also has 26 hydropower turbo-generators, will have an installed capacity of 22.5m kW, generating up to 100bn kWh of electricity a year.

As of the end of last year, the world's largest hydroelectric project had generated about 367bn kWh of electricity since its first generator was put into operation in July 2003.