China's Guangdong Province to Accelerate Nuclear Power Construction

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--According to the latest arrangement, Guangdong province, the economic strength in southern China, will invest more than $10 billion in the construction of key energy projects in 2009. Within this investment, $1.2 billion will be spent on nuclear power; $4.1 billion will be spent for the construction of coal-fired power plants in places with convenient transportation and sound grid supports; $4.4 billion will be spent on the power grid in order to accelerate the construction progress of transmission projects from power sources and trans-regional power transmission projects; another $0.3 billion will be spent for the improvement of oil and gas infrastructures such as liquefied-natural-gas terminals.

Guangdong currently has four nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of 4,000 megawatts operated in Daya Bay and Ling'ao I and four reactors under construction in Ling'ao II and Jiangmen respectively. Large-scale nuclear power development will be important for energy structural adjustment in the province. Early this month, six new reactors for the Yangjiang Nuclear Power Project with a total investment value of $10.3 billion received approval from the National Development and Reform Commission. Construction of the first unit of the project will be officially started by the end of this year, and all six units will be completed in 2017. Another four reactors in Taishan are scheduled to begin construction in 2010. In total, the capacity of nuclear power units under construction in the province will reach 16 gigawatts by 2010.

The development of nuclear power will help reduce excessive reliance on conventional energy sources such as coal and oil. Based on the calculation of 20 gigawatts of added nuclear power for the province in 2020, the self-supporting amount of energy in Guangdong will rise from the current 13% to 20%. Extensive investment in power projects, especially in nuclear power, will also greatly boost the development of related industries.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.