China Eyes Hydropower to Relief Pollution

Jan 2, 2001- People's Daily

China's installed hydropower capacity will rise by 35 percent from the current 74 million kilowatts to 100 million kilowatts by 2005 to replace dirty and inefficient thermal power.

Hydropower is expected to represent 27 percent of the country's power generation capacity by 2005, a 3.5 percent rise from the current level.

A total of 150 million kilowatts will have been installed by 2015, according to the State Power Corp. of China, China's largest power producer.

China is exploiting only 10 percent of its hydropower resources so far, compared with 50 to 90 percent in some developed countries.

And more than 70 percent of the country's electric power comes from thermal power plants to date, which has caused severe pollution, especially in coastal cities.

The development of clean and renewable hydropower is of great significance to the country as it tries to satisfy increasing power demands as well as protect the environment, officials said.

The national power consumption in China is expected to increase by 5 to 6 percent annually in the next five years and it is estimated to top a total 1,650 billion kilowatt hours a year by 2005, up 26.9 percent over the current level.

Abundant hydropower resources in the western regions, especially along the upper reaches of the Yellow River and Yangtze River, will play an important role in fulfilling the country's ambitious goals, said an official with the company.