Construction for a wind power project, with a generating capacity of 100,000 kilowatts per year, began yesterday in Rudong County, eastern Jiangsu Province.

Costing 800 million yuan (US$97 million), the wind power project is scheduled to go into operation in 2005, according to Zhan Lifeng, magistrate of Rudong County.

Currently, the county has 13 wind-measuring towers, each 70 meters high, along its coastline and has established data on wind power resources.

County head Zhan Lifeng said, following the current project, Rudong plans to build its second and third phase, which will have a combined generating capacity of 750,000kw.

Besides wind power projects, Rudong will also build power projects to make the best use of local rich solar energy, tide energy and other sources of generating electricity.

Zhan, the county head, estimated that upon completion of the planned energy projects in Rudong in 2010, his county is expected to have a total generating capacity of 926,000 kilowatts. These projects can generate 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, 2.5 times the planned power consumption in the county in 2010.

Acute shortage of resources, environmental pollution and ecological deterioration have prompted the Chinese government to attach great importance to developing the wind power industry. In 1996, the government drafted a plan to encourage development of domestic technologies to manufacture large and medium-sized units for wind power generation. China's investment in the industry totaled 1.5 billion yuan in the five-year period from 2001 to 2005.

Currently, China has 20 small-sized wind power generating units in its western regions. These play a vital role in enabling local farmers and herders to have easy access to electricity. In other areas, including Guangdong, Fujian, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, 26 wind power fields generate a combined 500,000kw.

As the first franchise wind power project approved by the Chinese government, the Rudong plant was designed as a trial for large-scale production of wind power and for commercialized operation of wind power projects.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2004)