The Maerdang Hydropower Station, the highest-altitude facility of its kind with the largest installed capacity in the Yellow River basin, is set to become fully operational on Tuesday.
Located at an average altitude of 3,300 meters in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai of northwest China, the station has a total installed capacity of 2.32 million kilowatts, comprising four 550,000-kilowatt hydropower generating units and one 120,000-kilowatt unit. Its first unit was already connected to the state grid in April this year.
Final tests on the station's No.2 unit were carried out on Monday to make sure the unit is ready for commissioning. The hydropower station is expected to generate an average of 7.3 billion kWh of electricity annually, offsetting the consumption of 2.22 million tons of standard coal and the emission of 8.16 million tons of carbon dioxide per year.
The project marks a milestone in Qinghai's new energy development and will facilitate the establishment of more clean energy bases in the upper reaches of the Yellow River.
High-altitude hydropower station to begin full operation
The U.S.-Israeli airstrikes against Iran since February 28 have inflicted irreparable damage on the country's priceless cultural heritage sites, according to Hassan Fartousi, secretary-general of the Iranian National Commission for UNESCO.
Speaking to the press on Tuesday, Fartousi said that 132 cultural heritage items have been attacked in recent strikes, emphasizing that the losses extend far beyond monetary valuation.
"Last night, I was told that 132 pieces [items] of our cultural heritage have been attacked, and it is really impossible to say how much the costs are, and it can be said that these (damaged cultural heritage items) are priceless and irreparable. How can these be defined?" Fartousi said.
Among the most severely affected sites is the Golestan Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2013.
Fartousi said that about 40 percent of the palace's historic mirror works, dating back nearly 220 years to the Qajar period, have been damaged.
"Unfortunately, in Golestan Palace, there are almost 40 percent of the mirror works [that] have been damaged which belong to almost 220 years ago, the Qajar period. The same situation [occurred] in the Saad Abad complex [in] which the Green Palace [was] attacked in a way which the specialists were telling me very sadly that it may not be possible to repair some of the damages," he said.
The Golestan Palace complex, selected as the royal residence and seat of power by the Qajar ruling family in the 19th century, has been described by UNESCO as "a masterpiece of the Qajar era, embodying the successful integration of earlier Persian crafts and architecture with Western influences."
The Saad Abad complex, a sprawling former royal compound in northern Tehran, encompasses an extensive park with multiple buildings now serving as museums dedicated to Iran's cultural history. The official residence of Iran's president is located adjacent to the site.
U.S.-Israeli airstrikes cause irreparable damage to Iran's cultural heritage sites: UNESCO official
