Carol Chan – Updated on May 14, 2008 – SCMP
China WindPower Group plans to add eight to 10 plants with a capital commitment of about 700 million yuan (HK$781 million) every year to tap the growing demand for clean energy on the mainland, chief executive Liu Shunxing said yesterday.
“Installed capacity of wind power in China will increase rapidly in the future as Beijing hopes to have 10,000 megawatts of wind-generated energy installed by 2010, from 1,260 megawatts in 2005 to reduce reliance on highly polluting coal-fired power plants,” Mr Liu said.
China WindPower, a traditional Chinese medicine chain operator in Hong Kong until it changed its business last year, is running four wind power plants with a total installed capacity of 169.5 megawatts and is building another six with a total capacity of 297 megawatts.
Mr Liu said the company, formerly Hong Kong Pharmaceutical, would add more plants in ventures with state-owned companies.
Most of its plants have designed capacity of 49.5 megawatts each but as demand picks up and new technology becomes available, the company will build bigger scale projects.
It recently secured the rights to develop a 200-megawatt wind power project in Gansu province with Guohua Energy, a subsidiary of the mainland’s top coal producer China Shenhua Group.
Total investment of the Gansu project totalled 1.8 billion yuan. The two companies will sign the joint-venture contract in the second half this year and China WindPower could get a 25 per cent to 49 per cent stake, according to Mr Liu.
Mr Liu said the company had obtained the rights to develop wind power resources in Inner Mongolia and Hebei province with potential capacity of 6,000 megawatts, which was enough for the company’s development in the next 10 years.