Jinsha River Dams

Jinsha River (Upper Yangtze River) Hydropower Projects List

Location: Southwest China (Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces)

Updated August 2008

dams/proposed dams listed from downstream to upstream

1. Xiangjiaba Dam

• Location: Sichuan/Yunnan (elevation 380 meters)
• Size: 6 GW (30.7 billion kWh annually); dam height 161 meters
• Status: under construction
• Financiers: Yangtze Power, China Development Bank (CDB), China Construction Bank
• Builder: Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC)
• Environmental Impact: There is some concern for natural habitats of wild pandas (which has been denied by Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre). About 1.46 billion yuan (US$184.8 million) has been earmarked by CTGPC for environmental protection.
• Resettlement and Social Impact: Estimates range from 85,000 to 118,000 people from six counties (half in Sichuan, half in Yunnan) who will need to be relocated; already 8,000 people have been relocated. Construction is occurring on top of a thermal spring, displacing a thriving Hot Springs resort built a few years ago.

2. Xiluodu Dam

• Location: Lower Jinsha River, Sichuan/Yunnan (elevation 610 meters)
• Size: 12.6 GW; dam height 278 meters
• Status: under construction since January 2006; in 2005, construction halted because project lacked an Environmental Impact Assessment, but work has resumed. Dam gates closed for the first time on the Jinsha River when Xiluodu Dam gates were closed in November 2007.
• Financiers: Yangtze Power, China Development Bank (CDB), China Construction Bank
• Cost: 6 billion yuan (about US$876.7 million); estimates for Xiangjiaba, Xiluodu, Baihetan and Wudongde range from US$3.68 billion to US$5.43 billion
• Builders: Three Gorges Project Corporation (CTGPC)
• Resettlement: 32,000-50,000 people will be displaced.

  Image of Xiluodu Dam after completion (People's Daily Online)

3. Baihetan Dam

• Location: Lower Jinsha River, Sichuan/Yunnan
• Size: 12.6 GW; dam height 277 meters
• Status: to be completed by 2020; currently undergoing site preparation
• Financiers: Yangtze Power, China Development Bank, China Construction Bank
• Builder: CTGPC
• Resettlement: 67,000 people will be displaced.

4. Wudongde Dam

• Location: Lower Jinsha River, Sichuan/Yunnan
• Size: 7.4 GW; dam height 235 meters
• Status: to be completed by 2020; currently undergoing site preparation
• Financiers: Yangtze Power, China Development Bank, China Construction Bank
• Builder: CTGPC
• Resettlement: 14,200 people will be displaced.

  Ahai Dam Construction, Jinsha (Yangtze) River, China

5. Guanyingyan Dam

• Location: Middle Jinsha River (elevation 1132 meter)
• Size: 3 GW; dam height 183 meter
• Financier: Hanergy
• Resettlement: 8,810 people will be displaced.

6. Ludila Dam

• Location: Middle Jinsha River (elevation 1221 meters)
• Size: 2100 MW; dam height 120 meters
• Financier: Hanergy
• Resettlement: 16,900 people will be displaced.

7. Longkaikou Dam

• Location: Middle Jinsha River (elevation 1297 meters)
• Size: 1800 MW; dam height 113 meters
• Financier: Hanergy
• Resettlement: 2,000 people will be displaced.
  

8. Jinganqiao Dam

• Location: Yunnan (elevation 1410 meters); reservoir abuts Ahai Dam area
• Capacity: 465 MW (11.876 billion kWh annually); dam height 156 meters
• Status: under construction; planned to come online in 2009
• Financiers: Hanergy
• Construction: Jinsha River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd
• Cost: US$2.19 billion
• Resettlement: 2,000 people will be displaced.

9. Ahai Dam

• Location: Yunnan (elevation 1504 meters)
  
• Capacity: 2.1 GW (or about 9 billion kWh annually); dam height 138 meters
• Status: under construction; first diversion channel and coffer dam to be operable by January 2009. The dam has yet to receive necessary approval from the State Council. On May 30, 2007, the Yunnan Provincial People's Government issued a public announcement to stop dam construction until effective measures to protect shores and resettled peoples were created, after landslides collapsed the shoreline.
• Financiers: Hanergy. China Huadian Corporation, China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corporation, Huarui Investment Group and Yunnan Development Investment Co. Ltd.
• Cost: 12.773 billion yuan
• Builder: Jinsha River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd
• Environmental Impact: A minimal EIA for the Ahai dam was release to the public in November 2007; this constituted the first time an EIA for a dam project had been open to public comment. The EIA states that at least three protected fish species will be impacted. Scenic gorge would be inundated. Unfortunately, comments made on the EIA by International Rivers and Chinese NGOs have not been addressed.
• Resettlement and Social Impact: 2,400 people will need to be resettled for this dam; project would inundate well preserved historic villages and farmland; could damage Baoshan Village, a 1000 year old Naxi village.

10. Liyuan Dam

• Location: Yunnan (elevation 1620 meters)
  
• Size: 1.8 - 2 GW; dam height 155 meters
• Status: site preparation underway including road building and construction of a 231m bridge; drilling to test rock also occurring near site. Digging for Liyuan water diversion tunnel No.1 began in May 20, 2008 and will be completed in 2009.
• Financiers: China Huadian Corporation, China Huaneng Group, China Datang Corporation, Huarui Investment Group and Yunnan Development Investment Co. Ltd.
• Construction: Jinsha River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd
• Resettlement: 1,300 people will be displaced.
• Environmental Impact: The dam could impact the Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage Site. The dam also lies on the Sanjian fold system (possible earthquake concerns).

11. Liangjiaren Dam

• Location: Yunnan (elevation 1810 meters)
  
• Size: 4 GW; dam height 99.5 meters
• Status: no site preparation had yet occurred as of April 2008.
• Construction: Jinsha River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd and Yunnan Hydropower Development Co. Ltd.
• Environmental Impact: Could impact Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage Site.

12. Hutiaoxia (Tiger Leaping Gorge) Dam

• Location: Yunnan, near Lijiang (elevation 1950 meters)
• Size: 6 GW; dam height 216 meters
• Status: dam designed and site surveys have occurred but not under construction as of April 2008. The project was shelved in 2004 after opposition led by local communities together with Greenpeace, Global Earth Village and nine other NGOs in Beijing; a media report in 2007 suggested the project may have been canceled and moved 200 km upstream to an ethnically Tibetan section of the river.
• Builder: Yunnan Hydropower Development Co. Ltd.
• Environmental Impact: Could impact the Three Parallel Rivers World Heritage Site. 1.3 million hectares of land would be submerged. Scientists have stated that major environmental damage would result; scenic gorge popular with tourists would be inundated.
• Resettlement/Social Impact: 100,000 local mostly Naxi minority farmers would be relocated if original project goes forward; if alternate upstream location selected about 20,000 ethnic Tibetans near Diqing would be displaced. Thousands of cultural heritage sites would be destroyed.

References:
Dore, J and Yu Xiaogang (2004), Yunnan Hydropower Expansion: Update on China's energy industry reforms and the Nu, Lancang and Jinsha hydropower dams, Working Paper from Chiang Mai University's Unit for Social and Environmental Research, and
Green Watershed, 32 pp.

"A Survey of the Rivers," Lijiang County, Accessed 12 Aug 2008, .

Yao Yonghui, Zhang Baiping, Ma Xiaoding, and Ma Peng (2006), "Large-scale Hydroelectric Projects and Mountain Development on the Upper Yangtze River," Mountain Research and Development 26:2, pp109-114.