China Huadian Corp, one of the country's five leading power companies, yesterday said it would invest 485.64 million yuan to develop a wind power project in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Huadian will develop the project in Tongliao in Inner Mongolia, with a capacity of 49.5 mW, the company's listed arm Huadian Power International Corp said in a statement yesterday.

Huadian has started a subsidiary for the construction and operation of the initiative. It has a registered capital of 169.98 million yuan, said the statement.

The project is in line with the company's strategy to further boost the development of the clean energy source. The company will also make efforts to increase its portfolio in other renewable energy fields, according to the statement.

Established in 2002, Huadian's total installed power capacity was 63 gW by the end of last year. It has wind power capacities of 216 mW, accounting for 0.35 percent of the total.

Besides Huadian, other Chinese power producers all quickened their pace in the development of wind power. China Huaneng Group, the country's largest power company, said it has accelerated the construction of its wind power projects in Guangdong, Jilin, Shandong, Inner Mongolia and Hainan.

Huaneng's wind power projects in operation or under construction now have a total capacity of 1,347 mW, according to the company's statistics.

China's wind power sector has seen rapid growth in the past years. According to China Electricity Council, an industry association, the wind power sector in 2007 generated electricity of 5.6 billion kWh, a growth of 95.2 percent over the previous year. The growth rate was 22 percentage points higher than the year before.

China had wind power facilities with a combined installed capacity of 6,050 mW at the end of 2007, increasing from 2,670 mW a year earlier. Wind power projects that are being built involve a combined installed capacity of 4,200 mW.

Now China ranks the fifth in the world in terms of wind power installed capacity. The country plans to increase its wind power capacity of 10,000 mW by 2015, and to 30,000 mW by 2020.

"China has large wind resources," says Shi Pengfei, vice-chairman of the Chinese Wind Energy Association. "China possesses 250,000 mW of wind energy potential on land, mainly in the northwest and the east coast, and 750,000 mW offshore."

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning body, China has taken a string of measures to support the exploration of wind power, including conducting a survey of wind resources, organizing biddings for franchise of large wind power projects, and promoting localization of domestically produced wind power equipment.

International Energy Agency said when oil prices hit or exceed $60-$70 a barrel, wind energy becomes the world's cost-effective and competitive energy resource.

(China Daily August 13, 2008)