China starts up major hydropower station-Xinhua

BEIJING, May 18 - China on Monday started operation of its largest hydropower station on the Yellow River after eight years under construction, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Laxiwa Hydropower Station, located in northwestern Qinghai Province and the upper reaches of the Yellow River, started running its first two units, Xinhua said.

The station has the largest installed capacity, tallest dam and highest outgoing voltage of all hydropower stations on the main stream of the Yellow River, China's second-longest waterway.

The Laxiwa Hydropower Station, with a total installed capacity of 4.2 gigawatts and a 250 meter-high arch dam, would be a major source of power for the development of China's west as well as the West-East transmission project, Xinhua said.

The other four generators of Laxiwa would start running before the end of 2010, it added.

That will bring the total installed capacity of all the hydropower stations on the upper stream of the Yellow River to more than 10 GW by 2010.

China has said it aims to raise its hydropower generating capacity by three quarters to 300 gigawatts (GW) by 2020.

The country boasts the world's largest hydropower generating capacity of 170 GW, or 20 percent of total power demand. (Reporting by Eadie Chen and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Chris Lewis)