Daya Bay is a 2,010 MW nuclear power station in Guangdong, China. It is operated by China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN). Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 4.5 million homes (estimated). It ranks #288 of 6,685 China power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1994, it is around 32 years old — long-established. As a non-combustion source, it has no direct CO₂ emissions from generation. In context, nuclear supplies about 4.6% of China's electricity; the national grid averages 525 gCO₂/kWh (41.7% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1061018.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000500119); fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 2,010 MW, Daya Bay is below the median nuclear plant in China (5,000 MW). Technically it is described as pressurized water reactor. Nuclear plants split uranium to raise steam with no direct CO₂; they run as steady baseload with very high capacity factors and the longest operating lifetimes of any thermal plant.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN).
This nuclear plant uses heat from nuclear fission to raise steam for a turbine-generator. It sits in a humid subtropical (dry winter) climate (Köppen Cwa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 22.6°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 88% below the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 18/100 — this site sits in the bottom third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #61 largest nuclear power plant of 72 in China by capacity.
China has 72 nuclear power plants in this dataset, together about 337,738 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 22.6, 114.54 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Daya Bay is a 2,010 MW source-record nuclear power plant in Guangdong, China, commissioned in 1994.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 4,527,668 homes (estimated).
Daya Bay is operated by China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN).
