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Capacity of wind power base in NW China hits 2 GW (Xinhua)

Updated: 2009-12-25 20:14

YUMEN, Gansu: The installed capacity of China's first massive wind power base in northwestern Gansu Province reached two gigawatts, local authorities said Friday.

The Jiuquan wind power base achieved the landmark capacity as China Datang Corporation, one of China's power giants, installed a 200-megawatt wind power unit in Yumen City under the jurisdiction of Jiuquan City, said Wu Shengxue, deputy head of Jiuquan's Reform and Development Commission.

The wind power base, which consists of 8 groups of power plants, is planned to be the first of its kind to have a capacity of more than 10 gigawatts. According to a plan of China's National Energy Administration, its capacity is expected to reach 12.71 gigawatts in 2015.

The plan included five other wind power bases of over 10-gigawatt capacity. A wind power base of 20 gigawatts and another of 30 gigawatts are to be built in east and west Inner Mongolia. Two other bases, each having a 10-gigawatt capacity, are respectively planned in eastern Jiangsu Province and northern Hebei Province. One more wind power base of 20 gigawatts is to be built in northwestern Xinjiang.

China would have a wind power capacity of more than 100 gigawatts or 3 percent of the country's overall consumption by 2020, said Shi Pengfei, deputy president of Chinese Wind Energy Association.