China builds hydropower station on upper Yangtze

The construction of a large hydropower station has begun on the Jinsha River, the upper section of the Yangtze River, local authorities said Thursday.

The Suwalong project, undertaken by China Huadian Corp., is at the junction of Mangkam County, Tibet Autonomous Region, and Batang County, Sichuan Province, in southwest China, according to Qamdo resources development bureau, which administers Mangkam.

It has a designed capacity of 1.2 million kilowatts and will be able to generate about 5.4 billion kwh of electricity per year. It will cost nearly 18 billion yuan (2.77 billion U.S. dollars).

A 112-meter-high dam will be built to form a reservoir that can store about 674 million cubic meters of water.

The first of its four generating units is expected to start operation in 2021. The project will support development across the Tibetan-inhabited area.