China's Three Gorges Project, the world's biggest hydroelectric
plant, helped the country avoid emitting 191.3 million tons of
carbon dioxide and 1.16 million tons of sulphur dioxide as at the
end of last month, officials said in Shanghai Friday.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the
government's top economic planner, said that the plant had
generated 203.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity since its
first generating units began operation in 2003.
Hao Weiping, chief of the power section of the Energy Bureau of
the NDRC, said Chinese coal-fired power plants would have burned
about 73.35 million tons of coal to produce the same amount of
electricity.
The Three Gorges Project will be able to generate 84.7 billion
kwh of electricity annually when it is completed at the end of
2008, or the equivalent of 50 million tons of coal, said the China
Three Gorges Corporation, the developer and operator of the dam
project.
Burning 50 million tons of coal would produce 100 million tons
of carbon dioxide, the company said.
The plant is expected to produce 63.7 billion kwh of electricity
in 2007, which is equivalent to two-thirds of the electricity
consumption of Shanghai, the country's biggest city.
The 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar project was launched in 1993 in the
middle reaches of the Yangtze River, China's longest. Its 26
turbo-generators are designed to produce 84.7 billion kwh of
electricity a year after its scheduled completion in 2008.
Currently, 19 turbines have been put into operation with a total
installed capacity of 13.3 million kilowatts.
(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2007)
