The Three Gorges Project, the world's largest hydroelectric project, as of Tuesday has generated 300 billion kwh of electricity since its first turbine generator was put into operation in July 2003.

Rape flowers blossom around the Three Georges Dam in late March, 2009.

The project realized the amount of electricity at 2:03 a.m. Tuesday, according to the China Three Gorges Project Corporation.

Its electricity output as of now was equivalent to 8.8 percent of the country's total consumption last year, which stood at 3.4 trillion kwh according to the China Electricity Council, which is made up of power enterprises and institutions.

The Three Gorges Project generated 80.8 billion kwh of electricity last year alone, the corporation said.

Launched in 1993, the project was expected to be finished by November 2009.

With a budget equivalent to US$22.5 billion, the project is also a water control system for the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest waterway. Its functions cover power generation, flood control and navigation.

Main works of the project also include a 185-meter-high dam, a five-tier ship lock and 26 hydropower turbo-generators.

Installed capacity of the 26 generators that have all gone operational totals 18.2 million kw, the corporation said.

Plans were expanded further to include six more underground turbines by 2012.

The electricity generated by the project supplies 15 provinces in central, eastern and southern China, easing a severe power shortage in industrial regions.

(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2009)