Impressing people with its sweet seedless grapes, the Turpan
Basin in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is expected
to become a major wind power generator in the country soon.
China Huadian Corporation, a national power generating business
group, will spend 15 billion yuan (US$1.87 billion) on building
wind power projects with a combined installed capacity of two
million kilowatts in the Xiaocaohu area in Turpan Basin.
This will be the largest wind power project ever built in China,
said Yang Ming, deputy general manager of the Xinjiang subsidiary
of China Huadian Corporation.
Xiaohuqu is one of the nine major places in Xinjiang which
boasts rich wind power. The reserve of wind power is estimated to
be one billion kilowatt-hours per year in an area of 1,000 sq km,
where wind power plants with a combined capacity of two million
kilowatts can be built.
China ranks the first in the world by boasting 253 million
kilowatts of wind power on land. Xinjiang accounts for 37 percent
of the country's total and second only to Inner Mongolia Autonomous
Region in north China, said Shi Yuguang, director of Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Regional Meteorological Station.
Fast economic growth has brought China under the pressure for
resources and environmental protection. China's Law on Renewable
Energy took effect January 1 this year, stressing development and
utilization of solar energy and wind power.
Xinjiang's installed capacity of wind power plants had reached
180,000 kilowatts by the end of last year, or 23 percent of the
national total.
(Xinhua News Agency April 14, 2006)