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.

Source: Xinhua