ANOTHER four mega dams are expected to appear on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River and together they will have the capacity to produce double the amount of hydropower created by the Three Gorges facility, a senior engineer of the projects' construction body confirmed today.The dams are expected to create a new world record with a total installed hydropower capacity of 32 million kilowatts, surpassing the 18.2-million-kilowatt Three Gorges Dam.
The dams will lie along the lower reaches of the Jinshajiang River, the biggest tributary to the Yangtze between Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.
Plans of Wudongde Hydropower Station and Baihetan Hydropower Station are now still under consideration, Zhang Shuguang, deputy general engineer of China Three Gorges Project Corporation, confirmed to Shanghai Daily this afternoon.
Water diversion has already begun for Xiluodu Hydropower Station, the country's second largest dam. Construction began on November 26 for Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station, the third biggest, Zhang added.
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More than 7,300 residents have been relocated for the 50.3-billion-yuan Xiluodu project. It is expected to bring extra fiscal revenue of 30 million yuan to Sichuan Province, Wang Huaichen, deputy governor of Sichuan, said in previous interview.
Xiangjiaba, a plant with an investment of 18 billion yuan, will have a total installed hydropower capacity of six million kilowatts and will be completed in 2015, the New Express said.
It also added that planners will probably start the construction of Wudongde and Baihetan in 2010 and that research for both will end next year.
Wudongde has a planned installed hydropower capacity of 7.4 million kilowatts while Baihetan has 12 million kilowatts.
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