Gao Shengwen, director of Yumen Municipal Development and Reform Committee, said that constructing such a wind farm, the first of its kind in the country, is to accelerate the pace of constructing the 12.7GW Jiuquan new energy base.
It will also accelerate the promotion of Chinese-manufactured wind turbines on the market. The 500MW wind farm, which is awaiting final approval, will have a total investment of CHY5billion.
Gao said that the planned wind farm will install 2MW, 2.5MW, 3MW and 5MW turbines. The majority of these will be 2.5MW and 3MW.
Jiuquan City, based in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu, is the region approved by the central government to host 10GW-level wind farms.
Yumen City, under Jiuquan City, is one of the six 1GW-level wind farm bases in the country. By the end of May this year, Jiuquan City had more than 3GW wind power installed capacity, and Yumen City had broken the line of 1GW.
Previously, China had to largely import core components to produce turbines for large-scale wind farms. But, China has never stopped trying to localize the production of large wind turbines.
Gao said that the pilot wind farm using all China-made turbines will serve to test the domestically made turbines.
He added the project will soon enter the substantial construction stage. He expected that by the end of this year, the wind farm would have 500MW turbines installed. By that time, Yumen will be a place in the country hosting the most complete mix of wind turbines.
