Nation to play significant role in global energy system: expert

China has abundant resources in hydropower development and will play a significant role in the global energy system, an expert said on Monday at the Beijing Forum on Hydropower and Future Energy Systems.

The forum is sponsored by the International Hydropower Association (IHA) at the headquarters of Three Gorges Group (CTG) in Beijing, also a co-organizer of the forum.

Zhang Ye, president of the China Society for Hydropower Engineering, said at the forum that China has unique advantages in the development of hydropower. For example, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Southwest China possesses the world’s most abundant hydropower resources.

At the end of 2017, China’s installed capacity of hydropower was 340 million kilowatts, accounting for about 30 percent of the global volume, Zhang said.

As part of a series of events leading up to the 2019 World Hydropower Congress in Paris, the forum aims to promote the understanding of technical, business and policy aspects of the energy transition, with a focus on renewable energy systems, and the role of hydropower in supporting this transition.

“We joined the IHA in 2005 and together with other IHA members, we’ve been striving to contribute to the sustainable development of the industry, and we’ll continue to do so,” said Sha Xianhua, executive vice president of CTG.

Zhang conceded that gaps persist between China and developed countries like Switzerland, France and Germany in terms of the exploitation rate of hydropower, saying that China does have broad development prospects.