The project is unique as it is made up of 95 small individual power plants which use the flow of rivers to generate clean electricity. The hydropower plants are spread across four provinces, in some of the most disadvantaged and least developed areas of China.  67 of them are located in Chongqing Municipality, 9 in Yunnan Province, 13 in Sichuan Province and 6 in Guizhou Province. Many of the projects are located in remote mountain regions, isolated from the rest of China. 

The plants are all small-scale, ranging in size from 0.1 to 10 MW capacity. They all use a ‘run-of-river’ design, which means they are able to utilise the power of the rivers with no significant environmental or social impacts. The plants supply renewable electricity to the Southern and Central China Power Grids, which are heavily reliant on power from burning coal. This project helps meet China’s growing demand for power with clean, renewable energy.