Large Hydropower Plant to Be Build in YunnanChina is speeding up the preparation for its second largest hydro power plant in southwest China's Yunnan Provinces along the Lancang River.The plant's power generation capacity is designed to reach 5.5 million kilowatts, with the annual power generation output of 23.6 billion kilowatts, the largest among power plants along the river. The power plant will be put into operation in 2014, if construction starts in 2005, with an investment totaling 20 to 30 billion yuan. Discussions about the project have been going on since last May. Experts noted that the plant's generating capacity is equal to over 14 million tons of coal, which will greatly reduce the air pollution and increase the anti-flood capacity. According to the local government's prediction, the operation of the plant will meet the energy consumption need of the Yunnan and many other provinces in the east. China plans to build several power plants along the Lancang River as an energy base of the Yunnan Province, which will also improve the water traffic along the river, linking China with several Southeast Asian countries including Laos and Thailand. The Lancang River, originating in the Tangula Mountain in west China, also runs through the Laos, Thailand and Cambodia. Yunnan to Become China's No. 1 Hydropower BaseA "10th Five-year Plan Proposal" mapping out Yunnan's future hydropower generation was lately made known by CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee at a meeting just closed in Kunming. It is told that Yunnan is to accelerate its hydropower construction and be built into a large and would-be largest hydropower base in keeping up with China's economic development.By experts' estimate, Yunnan has a hydropower potential of around 90 million kilowatts, making 23.2% of China's. Following a decision by the CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee and Government, precedence will be given to construction of many large and medium-sized hydropower stations and large-capability/high-parameter thermal power plants in the way an optimum rational power generation/supply system is to be formed in the province. |
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