State-Run Chinese Power Giant to Spend $1.2 Billion on Wind

Chinese government-owned China Huaneng Group, the country's largest power producer, announced this week a deal to purchase wind turbines from six domestic manufacturers for US$1.2 billion to help meet ever-growing energy demand.

The conglomerate, the Beijing-based parent of Huaneng Power International Inc. (NYSE: HNP), said in a Web statement, suppliers will include Sinovel Wind Group Co., Shanghai Electric Group, Dongfang Electric Corp., Zhejiang Machinery and Electrical Group, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp., and an unnamed manufacturer in Guangdong province.

Each of the companies is expected to supply units capable of generating 300 megawatts of capacity, for a total of 1,800 megawatts. In all, China Huaneng plans to generate some 20,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020, up from its currently capacity of 2,800 megawatts.

The impending purchases are the company's latest move to expand its use of renewables and work toward China's goal of having a minimum of 15% of its energy come from clean sources by the year 2020.

China is the world's fastest-growing energy market, and the second largest after the United States. Despite producing huge amounts of oil (3.8 million barrels a day last year) and coal, which fires 70% of the country's electricity, a massive shortfall has driven China to get energy wherever it can find it. Increasingly, alternatives such as wind and solar are gaining traction.

China Huaneng plans to build wind farms in the northern reaches of the country and along its windswept southeastern coastline, spending somewhere around $176 million on new wind projects this year.

Learn more about Wind Power on eBoom's Wind Energy Learning Page.