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Three Gorges producing clean energy, says official

— Photo: AP

The 700 megawatt water-wheel generator of the Three Gorges hydroelectric station.

BEIJING: The Three Gorges project is providing a cleaner source of energy and a “window of opportunity” to deal with potential geological disasters, said a official here on Tuesday.

Wang Xiaofeng, director of the office of the Three Gorges Project Committee of the State Council, said at a press conference that the mammoth project had played an irreplaceable role in flood control on the Yangtze river and in protecting the area’s environment.

He said a thermal power plant of the same capacity as the Three Gorges would discharge 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Silt accumulation will also not be a problem for the dam project. Silt accumulation at the 660-km-long reservoir, the world’s largest water conservation project, was less than 40 per cent of the annual projected figure. Pan Jiazheng, leader of the project’s quality control panel, who has been responsible for the construction of several hydroelectric power stations around the country, said the problem of silt accumulation had been at the forefront since the start of the project.

Chinese engineers have had great experience in tackling silt accumulation since the early 1960s with the opening of the Sanmenxia Power Plant. The Yellow River dam in Shaanxi Province accumulated 1.5 billion tonnes of silt within two years of its 1960 opening, raising the river’s bed significantly.

To solve the problem, holes were drilled at the bottom of the dam to let the silt pass through. At the Three Gorges, 23 big holes have been built at strategic points within the dam. The passages are opened in the rainy season when there is more silt in the water. — Xinhua

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