MWH in line for huge China project

Broomfield-based MWH, an international engineering and construction consulting firm, is expected to announce today that it will provide consulting services for construction of one of the world's tallest dams.

At 1,000 feet high, the Jinping I Hydropower project in China will be shorter than only the unfinished Rogun Dam in Tajikistan, which is expected to be 1,099 feet. The Jinping dam will have a generation capacity of 3,600 megawatts, or enough to power 6 million to 8 million Chinese homes, according to MWH estimates.

The project is one of many hydroelectric dams under construction in the People's Republic of China. It comes at a time when the world's most populous nation is trying to address looming energy woes, while also getting away from overdependence on less-sustainable and relatively dirtier fossil-fuel sources.

China, the world's second-largest energy consumer after the U.S., depends on coal-fired plants for 70 percent of its energy, according to estimates from the Economist.

In 2006, China passed a law to promote renewable-energy sources such as solar, wind and hydropower. The law has created opportunities for U.S. companies like MWH to work with Chinese companies including Ertan Hydropower Development Co., which is constructing the dam, MWH officials said.

Norm Bishop, MWH director of international engineering and water resources, said the involvement of experienced, international companies with the scores of dam projects planned in China bodes well for the structural and environmental security of the projects.

"We're not only assisting in terms of technology, but we're also assisting with information concerning our environmental rules and regulations - some of the environmental practices that are being done at various projects around the globe and in the U.S. in particular," Bishop said.

The dam will be constructed on the 900-mile Yalong River in south-central China's Sichuan province. Ertan has four other projects underway on the Yalong. The river is one of China's 12 major hydropower bases, according to Ertan's website.

The dam is expected to come online in stages beginning in 2011 and will be fully operational by 2014, Bishop said.