Severe power shortages suffered last summer in the Yangtze River
Delta may be something of the past as the local governments
consider employing wind as a new source of energy.
The delta region includes Shanghai and 14 cities in its
neighboring provinces of Zhejiang
and Jiangsu.
Generators in wind power plants with a total capacity of 675,000
kilowatts are now either under construction or being planned by
governments in the area.
Among them, generators with a total capacity of 500,000
kilowatts will be built in Rudong, a coastal city in Jiangsu.
Upon completion, probably by 2007, the province's first wind
power plant is expected to be the biggest of its kind in Asia.
The first phase of the project, comprising some 70 generators of
100,000 kilowatts in total, will be installed by the end of this
year.
Investment of US$1 million has been offered by the Huarui
Investment Group, a privately run company based in Beijing, and two
other unnamed firms.
Other wind power plants are planned in Zhejiang Province,
including a 50,000-kilowatt one in Taizhou and a 100,000-kilowatt
one in Daishan.
Wind-generated electricity is already in use in Zhejiang, but
the province needs far more energy than the 50,000 kw it currently
gets.
In Shanghai, a 20,000-kilowatt wind power project financed by
the World Bank is under construction.
The project, scheduled to supply power to the city by the end of
this year, comprises a 14,000 kilowatts wind power plant in Nanhui
District and a 6,000 kilowatts one in Chongming County, according
to officials with the Shanghai Energy Conservation Supervision
Center.
"Four generators on the coast of Fengxian District are in
operation and will soon be connected to the grid," said Yang Jinde,
an official at the center.
It is expected that wind power will account for 3 percent of the
total electricity Shanghai consumes by 2015.
"The delta region, and the whole country as well, depends too
much on coal for power," said Yang.
Currently about half of the country's coal is used to generate
electricity.
More than 60 percent of power used in the delta area comes from
fossil fuels.
Power shortages have resulted in a surge in coal
consumption.
Reliance on coal in the long term would not benefit China as the
country's coal sources are limited.
Having additional energy sources, such as wind, is thus
important.
In addition to wind, the country has begun shifting attention to
hydro and nuclear power sources, both of which are cleaner than
coal.
(Shanghai Daily?February 8, 2004)