World's Second Largest Hydropower Station Construction Begins
2017-12-31 00:00:00
中國東盟報道 2017年8期
A ceremony was held on Aug. 3 to mark the start of construction of the Baihetan project， located downstream of the Jinsha River on the upper section of the Yangtze in Ningnan county of southwest China's Sichuan Province and Qiaojia county of Yunnan Province.
With total installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts， the project is expected to generate more than 60 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year， equal to about two-thirds of Beijing's electricity consumption in 2015.
Power generation will begin in 2021 and the plant will become fully operational by the end of 2022.
With a 300-meter-high dam， the project can manage a basin area of 430，000 square kilometers， 91 percent of the Jinsha River's basin area.
Baihetan is significant in the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the adjustment of China's energy structure， according to Lu Chun， chairman of the China Three Gorges Corporation.
The new project will be equivalent to nearly 20 million tons of standard coal， cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 52 million tons per year， according to Lu.
