China Huaneng Group has started building the nation's biggest solar power plant at a cost of 9.1 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) and began operating a wind farm with Hongkong Electric Group.

The company plans to begin operating a 166-megawatt solar project in the southwestern province of Yunnan in 2010, China Huaneng, the nation's biggest electricity producer, said in a statement posted on its Website on Tuesday. China Huaneng and Hongkong Electric started a 470-million-yuan, 48-megawatt wind power plant in the same province, according to Bloomberg News.

China, one of the world's second-biggest energy consumers, will spend 4 trillion yuan, the equivalent of almost a fifth of its 2007 gross domestic product, on projects including power plants to stimulate economic growth, the State Council said on November 9. China Huaneng will expand its capacity for hydro, wind, solar and other clean fuels to 10,000 megawatts by 2010, the China Electricity Council said in 2006.

The Yunnan solar plant will be co-invested by a unit of China Huaneng and the Yunnan Provincial Power Investment, China Huaneng said.

China Huaneng, the parent of Huaneng Power International Inc, has a 55 percent interest in the wind-power venture, and Hongkong Electric owns the rest.

(Shanghai Daily December 11, 2008)