“Chinese Dam Projects Criticized for Their Human Costs”. New York Times. November 19, 2007 – “The Three Gorges Dam, then, lies at the uncomfortable center of China’s energy conundrum: The nation’s roaring economy is addicted to dirty, coal-fired power plants that pollute the air and belch greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. Dams are much cleaner producers of electricity, but they have displaced millions of people in China and carved a stark environmental legacy on the landscape.
[…]China’s insatiable appetite for energy is mostly being met with a building spree of coal-fired power plants. Coal accounts for 67 percent of China’s energy supply. Just last year, China added 102 gigawatts of generating capacity, as much as the entire capacity of France.
To ease its addiction to coal, China wants 15 percent of the country’s energy consumption to come from renewable sources by 2020, compared with 7.5 percent today. To do that, it is developing solar, wind and biomass projects so rapidly that some experts say it could soon become a world leader in renewable energy. Even so, forecasts show these sources will amount to less than 4 percent of the energy supply by 2020.
Nuclear power is another popular alternative, and officials plan to double its capacity by 2020. Yet even such a huge expansion will only amount to 4 percent of the energy supply.
Hydropower, by contrast, already accounts for 6 percent of the power supply and has major growth potential. Chen Deming, one of the government’s top economic planners, said hydropower was a critical noncarbon energy source and described the negative impacts of dams as “controllable.” He said officials would emphasize environmental protection and resettlement issues on future projects.”
Chen Deming, one of the government’s top economic planners, said to the New York Times in 2007[1] – “We believe that large-scale hydropower plants contribute a lot to reduce energy consumption, air and environmental pollution”.
“The Pros of the Three Gorges Dam”. Retrieved 2.07.08 – “The power generated is also much cleaner. China is known for having poor air quality and the emissions of many pollutants. With the dam, the air will get increasingly cleaner. The power generated today in China is from the burning of coal and fossil fuels. The dam will reduce the amount of coal emission by around 1.2 to 1.3 million tons of carbon monoxide and 10 thousand tons of nitrous oxides. (5) Not only does this benefit the quality of air, but the health of the Chinese people and the environment.”
“Three Gorges project helps cut emissions” GOV.cn Friday, December 21, 2007China’s Three Gorges Project helped the country avoid emitting 191.3 million tons of carbon dioxide and 1.16 million tons of sulphur dioxide from 2003 to 2007.It will be able to generate 84.7 billion kwh of electricity annually when it is completed at the end of 2008,the equivalent of 50 million tons of coal,which would produce 100 million tons of carbon dioxide,according to China Three Gorges Corporation estimated.
“Three Gorges Dam, disaster in the making?”. Earth Facts. February 8th,. 2008 – “The dam’s use of hydropower, a renewable source of energy, to generate electricity will help replace the burning of fossil fuels. This will support the environment against the world’s growing global warming problem. The plant’s output will be equivalent to several large coal-fired plants (TGD Hyrdoelectric). ‘[Three Gorges Dam] will reduce the country’s annual coal usage by 50 million metric tons, therefore diminishing a major source of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions’ (Water).”