China's rapid economic growth over the past 20 years has meant enormous increases in electrical power demands. However, 75 percent of the power supply comes from coal, which has resulted in severe air pollution in the country.

In order to solve the problem of energy shortages while not sacrificing people's living environment, the world's largest wind power project, the Guangting plant will be launched this month in Beijing and city residents may start using green wind-generated electricity within two years.

Xu Honghua, the expert on generating electricity by wind power, says the development of wind power will become a main focus for future energy projects because of its abundance, and because it doesn't pollute the environment.

"China's wind power resource is abundant—about 1 billion kilowatts. In addition, its potential is huge. The electricity price of wind power is closest to that of traditional ways of generating electricity".

The expert says the plant will mainly serve the power grids in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan City of Hebei Province. And it will generate 400,000 kilowatt when at full capacity, nearly doubling the electrical energy China currently obtains from wind.

However, Xu Honghua says the scale of generating electricity by wind power is still not large in China since the technological level is yet not high and its market competitiveness is still not strong. To meet these challenges, the government is working on a renewable-energy law to promote the wind-energy boom.

"The law stipulates that the State Grid Corporation must use renewable energy in its electricity generation. And reasonable prices should be given to let wind power electricity manufacturers gain profits."

The expert adds that the new law is expected to be in place by next summer, and he believes the law will lead to the Chinese landscape blossoming with fields of 2- and 3-megawatt wind turbines.

(CRI October 20, 2004)