China's biggest offshore wind farm, composed of 34 wind-driven generators, each with a capacity of 3,000 kw, is under construction near the Shanghai East China Sea Bridge, the China Business News reported on April 17.

Being built at a cost of 2.4 billion yuan (US$351 million), the wind farm will have an installed capacity of 100,000 kw, and will supply enough electricity to power 200,000 homes.

Just a few kilometers from the East China Sea Bridge, three 92-meter-high turbines are already standing. The remaining 31 turbines will be constructed in the near future.

According to the managers of the construction project, construction of the wind farm has been progressing well since the first turbine was installed on March 20. Shanghai citizens will have access to electricity generated from the East China Sea by the time the 2010 World Expo opens in the city.

There are plans to construct six or seven wind farms in Shanghai, including the East China Sea farm, the Bridge wind farm in Yangshan, the Fengxian Bay wind farm, and the Changxing Island wind power project.

Shanghai plans to increase wind power capacity by 254,000 kw to 293,000 kw, equivalent to the about 1.5 percent of the city's total installed generating capacity.

According to Zhou Yongxing, manager of the Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company, the city is not only investing enormous sums in the development of wind power, but also is funding other green projects such as transmission of clean, renewable energy to Sichuan Proince, solar power, and research and development on urban grid energy storage systems.

(China.org.cn April 17, 2009)