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Posted on 12/09/2007 5:39:57 AM PST by JACKRUSSELL
Another four mega dams are expected to appear on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and together they will have the capacity to produce double the amount of hydropower created by the Three Gorges facility, a senior engineer of the projects' construction body confirmed today.
The dams are expected to create a new world record with a total installed hydropower capacity of 32 million kilowatts, surpassing the 18.2-million-kilowatt Three Gorges Dam.
The dams will lie along the lower reaches of the Jinshajiang River, the biggest tributary to the Yangtze between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.
Plans of Wudongde Hydropower Station and Baihetan Hydropower Station are now still under consideration, Zhang Shuguang, deputy general engineer of China Three Gorges Project Corporation, confirmed to Shanghai Daily this afternoon.
Water diversion has already begun for Xiluodu Hydropower Station, the country's second largest dam. Construction began on November 26 for Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station, the third biggest, Zhang added.
The new hydropower projects come soon after China refuted foreign media reports that the Three Gorges Dam, a massive project credited with 10 world records, is an environmental disaster.
Some foreign journalists have reported that the Three Gorges is "a demon" on the Yangtze River, a time bomb for global warming and that water in the reservoir looks like soybean sauce, Pan Jiazheng, head of an expert panel for the Three Gorges Project, said at a news conference in Beijing on November 27.
He accused the foreign reports of "exaggerating" problems on the 203-billion-yuan (US$27.40 billion) project that forced the relocation of 1.13 million people.
Zhang declined to comment on what influence the four new dams will have on the environment, but said these projects can not go ahead if they fail environmental appraisals by the central government.
He also declined to reveal a total investment figure for these new plants.
Li Wufeng, assistant to the general manager of the China Three Gorges Project Co, said the dams will be fully invested by the company and "will not cost a penny to the country," the Guangzhou-based New Express reported today.
Construction started on Xiluodu in 2005 and it has a designed reservoir capacity of 12.67 billion cubic meters, of which 4.65 billion cubic meters are for flood control. The reservoir can dam one-third of floods to the Three Gorges in Yichang City, Hubei Province, which is 770 kilometers from Xiluodu, according to a report by Xinhua news agency last month.
Xiluodu has a planned hydropower capacity of 12.60 million kilowatts.
According to research from the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, simultaneous flood-control work by Xiluodu and the Three Gorges could instantly prevent four billion cubic meters of floodwater from inundating the densely populated plains in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, where economic centers such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan are located.
More than 7,300 residents have been relocated for the 50.3-billion-yuan Xiluodu project. It is expected to bring extra fiscal revenue of 30 million yuan to Sichuan Province, Wang Huaichen, deputy governor of Sichuan, said in previous interview.
Xiangjiaba, a plant with an investment of 18 billion yuan, will have a total installed hydropower capacity of six million kilowatts and will be completed in 2015, the New Express said.
It also added that planners will probably start the construction of Wudongde and Baihetan in 2010 and that research for both will end next year.
Wudongde has a planned installed hydropower capacity of 7.4 million kilowatts while Baihetan has 12 million kilowatts.
The Three Gorges has already realized "huge economic profits" even before its scheduled completion in 2009, Li told the New Express.
"As long as there is water in the Yangtze River, the Three Gorges can supply electricity," Li added.
The Three Gorges can presently generate 13.4 million kilowatts of electricity and it is expected to supply 22.5 million kilowatts when fully operational, Zhang said.
China's roaring economy is fueled mostly by dirty, coal-fired power plants that pollute the air and belch greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.
Dams are much cleaner producers of electricity and the central government wants to nearly triple its hydropower capacity to 300 gigawatts by 2020.
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