Hexi Corridor, a major section of the ancient Silk Road, has
become the home for China's biggest wind power project, experts
have said.
A wind power station with an installed capacity of 100,000
kilowatts has been built on the "Hexi Corridor Wind Power
Industrial Belt," while another 50,000-kilowatt station is under
construction and is expected to start operation in August 2006,
according to experts attending a national seminar on windmill
generators in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu
Province.
Local authorities are making preparations for a number of wind
power stations, while initial exploration shows that the possible
installed capacities of three super wind power stations range from
1.5 million kilowatts to 10 million kilowatts.
Gansu Province will make great efforts to develop wind power in
the coming five years, said Governor Lu Hao.
The province is aiming to build wind power generators with a
total installed capacity of over one million kilowatts between 2006
and 2010, he said. It will also endeavor to become a windmill
generation production base during the period.
The province, especially the Hexi Corridor, has abundant wind
energy, theoretically about 127 million kilowatts.
Only 1.95 million kilowatts, 7.7 percent of the country's
exploitable wind energy, can currently be harnessed.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2005)