Construction of a mega wind power station is expected to kick off in Xuwen County in the western part of Guangdong Province this year.

The 1.3 billion yuan project will include wind-driven generators with an installed capacity of 120,000 kilowatts.

Some of the project's equipment and technologies, including the generators, will be purchased from overseas, according to Huang Kaicheng, deputy general manger of Guangdong Yueneng (Group) Co Ltd.

Huang's company signed a contract with local government for the construction of the project on Wednesday.

Huang said many investors from Japan, Australia and Hong Kong are talking with his company for equipment and technology sale.

The project is scheduled to be completed in three years and to annually generate more than 240 million kilowatt hours.

Huang said he believes the project will be able to play a big role in the economic construction of western Guangdong, where electricity supply falls short of demand.

The Xuwen project is just one of the many wind power stations lined up in the southern Chinese province.

In April, Guangzhou Development and Power Investment Co Ltd signed a contract with the Huidong County government in eastern Guangdong's coastal area to build another big wind power station there.

The Huidong plant will have an installed capacity of 800,000 kilowatts and will be able to annually generate more than 1.8 billion kilowatt hours.

Other major projects in the offing include Zhuhai, Shantou, Yangxi, Yangdong and Hailing wind power stations. All are located in the province's prosperous coastal area.

The Guangdong provincial government plans to expand investment to develop wind, solar and other clean power to bridge the province's electricity supply gap that crossed 4 million kilowatt hours by April. It plans to achieve a wind power installed capacity of more than 700,000 kilowatts by the end of 2010.

(China Daily June 30, 2007)