The country's third largest wind power farm should be completed by August, the project manager told Xinhua.

The farm, in China's eastern Zhejiang Province, in coastal Daishan County, uses Danish technology but is being built for the provincial government by a Chinese firm.

"With nine 81-meter-high rotors set up, the construction work will be finished in August and begin generating electricity by the end of the year", said Xu Jie, the project's construction manager.

Peter Matheasbn, the engineer in charge of setting up the Denmark-imported equipment, told Xinhua that the only thing holding back the construction is the sometimes very windy weather, which also has its advantages.

The project, with 48 windmills in three wind farms, will produce an estimated annual capacity of 40.8 megawatts for the booming province, 13.6 percent of the total of the famous Qingshan Nuclear Power Station. The farm will produce the same amount of energy as 31,285 tonnes of coal in thermal power plants, according to analysts.

Zhejiang province, the economic powerhouse in the country's most developed area, the Yangtze River delta, has been long plagued by power cuts, with 95 percent of its energy coming from other provinces.

Officials explained that the wind power plant is expected to alleviate power shortages with zero greenhouse gas emission, echoing the government's push to develop eco-friendly renewable energy, backed by the renewable energy law passed in 2006.

The legislation encourages the construction of commercial, renewable power plants, specifying that the electricity grid must buy all the electricity generated by approved renewable energy facilities in its service area.

Chinese firm Meida Group, the major investor in the project and also a real estate developer in the province, spent about 42.5 million yuan (about US$6.05 million) on the project.

China's installed capacity of wind power will hit 10 million kilowatt this year, and the figure is expected to double in 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2008)