The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved • Hacker News Board

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#51

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 3:53 PM UTC

tomohelix wrote: post #44

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still doing megaprojects [1]. They're focussed on air and roads, in transportation; aerospace (defence and civil); and sports. > How long has it been since the high speed rail system was proposed? China built a national network in less time China's population distribution (and lack of strong-form property ownership) makes intercity passenger rail a lot easier than in America. We absolutely should have it in the…

They are still building but none of these are at the scale China is doing. Most US projects are less than 10B, majority are around 1-2B. Meanwhile this article shows the dam China is building is over 100B. That is why I mentioned that nothing the west is doing is that exciting, relatively. Sure, they are still large projects, but not the exciting, innovative type of "large" like Saturn V or moon landing. Just rehash…

> nothing the west is doing is that exciting, relatively. Sure, they are still large projects, but not the exciting, innovative type of "large" like Saturn V or moon landing

Literally Starship.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#52

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 3:54 PM UTC

ramblenode wrote: post #30

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still doing megaprojects [1]. They're focussed on air and roads, in transportation; aerospace (defence and civil); and sports. > How long has it been since the high speed rail system was proposed? China built a national network in less time China's population distribution (and lack of strong-form property ownership) makes intercity passenger rail a lot easier than in America. We absolutely should have it in the…

"Megaproject" seems to be used pretty loosely in this list. In my mind, renovating some airport terminals or adding extra lanes to a highway over a 10 mile stretch is not an ambitious "megaproject", just a typical infrastructure project. Certainly most of this stuff would not be considered megaprojects in China.

> most of this stuff would not be considered megaprojects in China

They are and they would. Rebuilding JFK is more complex than building a hundred airfields due to the former’s air traffic load and complexity.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#53

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 3:59 PM UTC

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #23

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite literally a section in the Wikipedia article.

Aha, I’m just not sure a stadium has the same level of developmental or economic impact as a high-speed rail line, power generation, airports or road infrastructure. It’s also usually far less challenging: build new structure on old stadium’s parking lot, demolish old stadium and turn that into a parking lot, done. None of those new stadiums in the US even have the capacity of say Maracanã or Azteca, both built in th…

> not sure a stadium has the same level of developmental or economic impact as a high-speed rail line, power generation, airports or road infrastructure

They’re a total waste of money. But the point remains that America is adding power generation, roads and airport infrastructure at a fast clip. Given China has clearly overbuilt, it’s not clear how much of their non-power infrastructure is actually yielding.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#54

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 4:01 PM UTC

api wrote: post #36

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still doing megaprojects [1]. They're focussed on air and roads, in transportation; aerospace (defence and civil); and sports. > How long has it been since the high speed rail system was proposed? China built a national network in less time China's population distribution (and lack of strong-form property ownership) makes intercity passenger rail a lot easier than in America. We absolutely should have it in the…

China also still has huge rivers it can do this with. Where would we bulld a dam like this in North America? I suppose Northern Canada has undeveloped rivers but not this big. We could I suppose displace tens of millions of people and dam the Mississippi and the Ohio and power a good chunk of the Midwest but we have human rights. I’d rather us build nuclear, wind, solar, and batteries.

> China also still has huge rivers it can do this with

We have more inland waterways than China. There just isn’t an economic case for dropping a huge dam here—our power growth is amply satisfied by cheaper solar and gas.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#55

Post by plasticchris » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 4:42 PM UTC

api wrote: post #36

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still doing megaprojects [1]. They're focussed on air and roads, in transportation; aerospace (defence and civil); and sports. > How long has it been since the high speed rail system was proposed? China built a national network in less time China's population distribution (and lack of strong-form property ownership) makes intercity passenger rail a lot easier than in America. We absolutely should have it in the…

China also still has huge rivers it can do this with. Where would we bulld a dam like this in North America? I suppose Northern Canada has undeveloped rivers but not this big. We could I suppose displace tens of millions of people and dam the Mississippi and the Ohio and power a good chunk of the Midwest but we have human rights. I’d rather us build nuclear, wind, solar, and batteries.

Considering transmission losses it might make more sense to dam many smaller rivers. And the Mississippi is an important freight route, a dam would complicate that.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#56

Post by JumpCrisscross » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 4:45 PM UTC

tucnak wrote: post #21

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still doing megaprojects [1]. They're focussed on air and roads, in transportation; aerospace (defence and civil); and sports. > How long has it been since the high speed rail system was proposed? China built a national network in less time China's population distribution (and lack of strong-form property ownership) makes intercity passenger rail a lot easier than in America. We absolutely should have it in the…

Drive-on/off rail?

Roll on roll off (roro) in transport lingo. Essentially more-efficient (and safer) transport of the passengers and their private vehicles.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#57

Post by loloquwowndueo » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 5:08 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #53

loloquwowndueo wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aha, I’m just not sure a stadium has the same level of developmental or economic impact as a high-speed rail line, power generation, airports or road infrastructure. It’s also usually far less challenging: build new structure on old stadium’s parking lot, demolish old stadium and turn that into a parking lot, done. None of those new stadiums in the US even have the capacity of say Maracanã or Azteca, both built in th…

> not sure a stadium has the same level of developmental or economic impact as a high-speed rail line, power generation, airports or road infrastructure They’re a total waste of money. But the point remains that America is adding power generation, roads and airport infrastructure at a fast clip. Given China has clearly overbuilt, it’s not clear how much of their non-power infrastructure is actually yielding.

Well that was not the point I was replying to :) but sure.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#58

Post by brightball » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 5:12 PM UTC

tokioyoyo wrote: post #46

brightball wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you look at it from a government project standpoint, there’s still the James Webb Telescope which is a monumental achievement IMO. Outside of that, there’s plenty of private work having huge impacts like SpaceX and Starlink.

Much respect to SpaceX and NASA, and I understand their importance to long term impact. But that’s not exactly what we’re talking about. We have lost talent and expertise in making our countries better, and it takes billions of dollars to build a couple of km of subway lines. We refuse to make incremental upgrades and shoot for moonshots every time.

And that’s totally valid. Numerous groups have complained about over regulation causing this issue too.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#59

Post by gosub100 » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 6:43 PM UTC

consumer451 wrote: post #27

rapsey wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DEI and environmental road blocks come from the other side of the isle.

DEI is to blame for the lack of infrastructure projects in the USA? Please, do share how this could possibly be connected!

Its not technically DEI , but if you tried to build a dam in the US some tribe would object it because (of course) that was the site of a sacred burial ground, or it would (allegedly) impact some specific animal that is sacred to them. Then CNN would rail about how the eminent domain "disproportionately affects PoC" and how "far-right congressman Badman voted to cut govbux to the poor women and children affected by this horrible infrastructure project".

Of course the energy company would only do it with liberal corporate welfare, awarded only on the condition of guaranteed DEI positions or strong preference toward subcontractors that were "women-owned " or Black owned.

Re: The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved

#60

Post by SJetKaran » Sun, Jan 05, 2025, 6:47 PM UTC

gmuslera wrote: post #28

esperent wrote: post #4

They really avoided all but the briefest mention of the most important thing for any large project like this: the potential ecological effects, not to mention geopolitical since said ecological effects will be across the border in India.

There are ecological effects for not doing it too, and in global scale this time. Hydroelectric energy is pretty clean, specially compared with burning oil/coal/gas to make an equivalent amount of energy. At least if the priority is to keep growing and not some massive worldwide degrowth agreement.

This is in a highly geologically active zone though.