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The estimated hydropower potential of the lower Mekong Basin (i.e. excluding China) is 30,000 MW, while that of the upper Mekong Basin is 28,930 MW. In the lower Mekong, more than 3,235 MW has been realized via facilities built largely over the past ten years, while projects under construction will represent an additional 3,209 MW. An additional 134 projects are planned for the lower Mekong, which will effectively exhaust the river’s hydropower generating capacity. The single most significant impact – both now and in the future – on the use of water and its management in the Mekong Region is hydropower.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=CPWF Mekong )〕 Given current development trends in the region, power demands are expected to rise 7% per year between 2010 and 2030,〔 yielding a substantial – and potentially lucrative - energy market. Hydropower is the favoured energy option for the Mekong’s riparian countries, as reflected in the narratives utilised to support these interventions. Laos is being portrayed as the ‘battery of Southeast Asia’. In China, hydropower is promoted as the best possible (‘clean green’) alternative to their coal-fired power stations, and will open the way to the development of the west.〔 In Thailand, hydropower champions emphasise the ‘greening of Isan’, the drought-prone northeast, to legitimise the development of a spectacular ‘water grid’ that will channel water from Laos, under the Mekong mainstream, and, according to critics, over-emphasise projected energy demands in the country. In Cambodia, hydropower is often seen as central to solving the country’s energy supply problems. The development of the Mekong River Basin is highly controversial, and is one of the most prominent components in the discussion about the river and its management. This debate occurs in both the academic literature, as well as the media, and is a focus for many activist groups. ==Existing hydropower infrastructure== Dams already constructed in Table 1: Table 1: Commissioned dams in the Mekong River Basin (more than 10 MW)〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Powering Progress )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Hydropower in the Mekong River Basin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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