Hydro Risks Make China's Three Gorges Look To Wind

The state-owned company behind China’s Three Gorges Dam is looking to expand its wind power portfolio as the risks associated with hydroelectric projects grow, a senior executive said on Saturday.

“Previously we focused mainly on hydropower but recently we have been restructuring and are moving towards wind and nuclear,” said Bi Yaxiong, the vice-general manager of the China Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC).
Tougher environmental safeguards and higher rates of compensation for those displaced by reservoir impoundment were now making it more difficult to launch large-scale hydropower projects in China, Bi told a conference.

“Previously, the biggest problem for hydropower was the cost, but now the biggest problem is relocating people and protecting the environment,” he said.

“The increasing social impact of hydropower, including paying compensation for relocated people, along with other political changes, has had an impact on the safety of investment.”

This week, Premier Wen Jiabao, a geologist by trade, ordered a complete halt to the construction of several controversial, and as yet unapproved, hydropower plants on the UNESCO-protected Nu River in southwest China’s Yunnan province.

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