"12th Five-Year Plan" Hydropower Newly Started Capacity or Nearly 100 Million Kilowatts

Zhang Boting, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Society of Hydroelectric Engineering, said in Beijing recently that the new construction of hydropower during the 12th Five-year Plan period is expected to be close to 100 million kilowatts.

It is understood that during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China's hydropower development has lagged behind its planning goals. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, originally planned hydropower started at about 70 million kilowatts, while the actual amount started was only 20 million kilowatts. Therefore, during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, both the amount of approvals for hydropower projects and the amount of start-ups needed to be significantly increased.

In view of the strict pre-approval of hydropower projects and the difficulty of obtaining a large number of approvals in the short term, Zhang Boting stated that it is necessary for environmental protection agencies to have stricter approvals for hydropower projects in the early stages, but with the gradual increase in pressure for carbon emission reduction in China, vigorously develop hydropower potential. Imperative. If during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China can set limits on carbon emission reduction as one of the country’s environmental protection indicators as it currently does for energy conservation and emission reduction, then the natural low-emissions advantages of hydropower projects will enable it to successfully obtain environmental protection departments. Approval for extra points.

Zhang Boting also stated that the key to speeding up the development of hydropower projects in the future is not only to increase the speed of supervision and review of hydropower projects, but also to increase propaganda for hydropower projects and to guide the public to go beyond the undue emphasis on immigration and environmental protection issues faced by hydropower development.