Hydropower development faces good opportunities

As the country implements a sustainable development strategy and demand for power keeps increasing, hydropower development in China will face golden opportunities in the next 15 to 20 years, according to a senior Chinese official.

Speaking at a recent international seminar on hydropower, Vice Minister of Water Resources Suo Lisheng said that hydroelectric power constituted the sole renewable source of energy that could be exploited on a large scale in China at present.

He said China had the biggest amount of exploitable hydropower resources in the world. If fully tapped, these resources could generate 1,920 billion kwh of electricity annually.

"China has 676 million kw of hydroelectric power reserves in theory. Of this, 378 million kw are exploitable, making up 16.7 percent of the exploitable hydropower resources in the world," he said.

By the end of 2003, Suo noted, China had a gross installed hydropower generating capacity of 92.17 million kw, accounting for 24 percent of the nation's total installed power generating capacity and annual hydropower output reached 283 billion kwh, or 15 percent of the nation's total annual electricity production.