Hydropower Development of China's Yangtze River

by Brian Clowes, US Army Corps of Engineers, Portland, OR, USA,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Water Power '87

Abstract:

The Yangtze has eight times the hydro potential of the Columbia River basin, currently the largest developed hydro system in the world. In order to pursue economic development through the Four Modernizations more effectively, the Chinese government is beginning the process of overhauling its entire energy system. Current and future Five-Year Plans call for the construction of several large hydro cascades, consisting of sixty projects, on the Yangtze main stem and its major tributaries. These cascades, which will be constructed over the next twenty years, will have a total capacity of at least 87,000 megawatts, yielding more than 250,000 gigawatt-hours (gWh) of electrical energy annually. Some other development plans are also discussed.

Subject Headings: Hydro power | Electric power | Power plants | Rivers and streams | Project management | Basins | Water storage | China | Asia | Yangtze River

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