Want... China and Russia are planning to build possibly the world's largest thermal power plant in Far East Russia that would export electricity to China, reports China's nationalist tabloid the Global Times.
Shu Yinbiao, the general manager of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), revealed the plan on Feb. 9. The SGCC would be working with the Unity Energy System of Russia to carry out the project and construct what is possibly the largest thermal power plant in the world with 8,000 to 10,000 megawatts of capacity, the article cited from Russia's Kommersant as saying.
After the proposed power plant is built, some of its produced energy would be sent to China via a 2,000 km ultra high voltage power line. The total investment would reach US$15 billion according to preliminary estimates, said the report.
The leaders of the two countries signed an agreement to investigate the feasibility of the project in March of 2013. The project would encompass coal mining in addition to construction of power facilities and transmission of power.
The SGCC in 2012 already built and launched a commercial 500KV high voltage direct current electric power transmission system that sends 3.5 billion kW.h of power from Russia to China annually.
Yin Ming, an engineer at the State Grid Energy Research Institute, said Russia and China complement each other in a couple of ways. Firstly, the former has bountiful natural resources while the latter can provide strong technological supports with its facilities and construction capabilities. Secondly, Russia's coal is cheap, making it a perfect fit for China, which has massive power needs.
References:
Shu Yinbiao 舒印彪
State Grid Corporation of China 中國國家電網公司
Yin Ming 尹明
State Grid Energy Research Institute 國家電網能源研究院
Poster Comment:
Interesting how two countries just do it rather than arguing for years, XL-keystone pipeline style.