BEIJING, March 24 -- China's Three Gorges Project, the country's largest hydropower project, has been completed by 90 percent, the operating company has announced.

 

The 22.5-billion-U.S.-dollar project was launched in 1993 in the midsection of the Yangtze River, China's longest.

 

According to the China Three Gorges Project Corporation, its 26turbo-generators are designed to eventually produce 84.7 billion kwhs of electricity a year after its scheduled completion in 2008.

 

Three to four, each with an installed capacity of 700,000 kw, will go into operation this year, said the company, adding 14 of the designed 26 turbines are operating at full capacity.

 

The Three Gorges Project has generated 150 billion kwhs of electricity in three years, fuelling 15 provinces in central, eastern and southern China, easing a severe power shortage in their industrial regions, said the company in an earlier statement.