China studies sites for 2 new Yangtze River dams.

BEIJING, March 24 Kyodo

Chinese water authorities are studying prospects for two new dams along the Yangtze River to supply power to the nearby municipality of Chongqing, sources said Friday.

The Yangtze Water Resources Commission recently finished an inspection of the Zhuyangxi and Xiaonanhai river stretches above the record-sized Three Gorges Dam to see if they are suitable for hydropower plants, Chongqing media reported this week.

A project at Xiaonanhai, which is 40 kilometers upstream from urban Chongqing, could generate one gigawatt of power, the Chongqing branch of China's official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the Chongqing Morning Post.

A project at Zhuyangxi, which is 140 kilometers upstream from downtown Chongqing, could generate three gigawatts of power, Xinhua said. It said the larger dam would cost the equivalent of $3.75 billion and go online between 2009 and 2016.

These projects would be the third and fourth dams spanning the width of the Yangtze's main channel after Three Gorges, a 2.3-km-wide dam to be completed by 2009, and the eight-year-old the Gezhuo Dam further downstream, said the Toronto-based environmental research group Three Gorges Probe.

''After the project is built, it will basically solve our city's tight electricity usage situation,'' Xinhua reported.

Chongqing, with about 30 million residents, mostly them living outside the urban area of the municipality, faces power shortages like much of China as the economy grows and coal-fired generation cannot keep up with demand.

Chongqing media say the water commission is making plans for the dams. But a commission director surnamed Lin said Friday the inspection was only for study purposes only and that no construction was being considered. He said there was no timeline for the dams.

The Three Gorges Probe said in an article released on its website Wednesday that the dams would also stop a dangerous accumulation of sediment behind Three Gorges Dam.

Three Gorges Dam, set to be the largest hydroelectric project in the world, has attracted international concern about environmental changes and impacts on local people. Construction started in 1994.

The two sites being studied now are part of 21 dams eventually to be built along the upper reaches of the Yangtze, the Three Gorges Probe report said. Combined, it said, the 21 dams should be able to generate 38.5 GW of power, or twice the amount produced by the Three Gorges Dam.