The Chinese government has awarded Israeli company
Sea Desalination Energy (SDE) a state contact to build hydraulic power plants in China, a statement by SDE said Monday
SDE was able to win the bid after setting up a local subsidiary with its Hong Kong and Chinese partners.
The company is scheduled to build a $650,000 facility in the southern Chinese region of GuangZhou. Once operational, and should everything proceed according to plan, the Chinese government is expected to order several more plants. The final deal is estimated in hundreds of millions of dollars.
China's choice of hydraulic power plants is rooted in its need to find alternative power sources, especially in view of soaring oil prices. China's multitude of typhoons and earthquakes makes it difficult to sustain wind based plants or nuclear power stations.
SDE claims to have been able to find a relatively cheap was of converting ocean water into hydroelectric power: While the construction of a "regular" power plant costs about $1.5 million per megawatt, a coal-based power plant costs some $3 million per megawatt and a gas-based power plant costs $950,000; SDE's hydraulic power plants only cost $650,000 per megawatt production.
"We have already been given the Chinese government's consent to build 100 additional hydraulic power plants," said SDE's Commercial Director Aaron Bezalel.
SDE's Chinese venture joins another $50 million deal the company signed with China-based Yudean, in 2005. China's Nuclear Power Guangzhou is also said to be exploring a similar deal with SDE as well.
According to the companies Managing Director, Shmuel Ovadia, SDE has recently signed a $20 million deal with a San-Francisco power company; and another with the Gambian government, as well as with the Federated States of Micronesia.
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