A wind power plant has become operational in suburban Beijing, considered a major step towards making 20 percent of the power supply to the city's Olympic venues during the games wind-generated.

The Guanting Wind Power Plant, beginning operation on Saturday, would not only help fulfil Beijing's promise of a "green Olympics", but symbolize the first-ever large-scale employment of wind power generation project in the Chinese capital, said a spokesman for the project.

With an installed capacity of 64,500 kilowatts, the plant has 43 domestically developed wind power units at work.

Since its first unit went into operation on Jan. 20, the plant has supplied 35 million kWh of "green power" to Beijing.

It is expected to supply 100 million-kWh electricity per year, enough to meet the daily demand of 100,000 households.

The power plant could help cut yearly emission of carbon dioxide by 100,000 tonnes and save 50,000 tonnes of coal each year.

The Beijing Olympics opens on August 8.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2008)