CHENGDU, Sept 30 (NNN-XINHUA) – A mega hydropower plant, built at an average altitude of 3,000 metres, the highest of its kind in China, went into operation yesterday.
The first two 500,000-kW power generation units went operational at the Lianghekou hydropower plant, on the Yalong River, in Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Sichuan Province, marking the operation with a total capacity of three million kW.
Construction of the project, with an approved investment of 66.46 billion yuan (10.3 billion U.S. dollars), started in Oct, 2014, and is expected to be fully completed by 2023, according to the Yalong River Hydropower Development Company, Ltd. (Yalong Hydro).
The storage capacity of the reservoir is designed to reach 10.8 billion cubic metres, and the annual power generation volume is expected to surpass 11 billion kWh.
The Yalong River basin is one of China’s clean energy bases. The Yalong Hydro, planned to create a “clean energy corridor” with a total installed capacity of 80 million kW of clean energy, including wind power and photovoltaic power.
The Yalong Hydro will promote the construction of clean energy base of the Yalong River basin, to contribute to China’s carbon emission reduction goals, said Bai Tao, chairman of the State Development and Investment Corp., Ltd., controlling shareholder of the Yalong Hydro.
China announced that, it would strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.– NNN-XINHUA
