By Wan Zhihong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-28 09:11

China Huaneng Group, the nation's largest electricity producer, has fired up coal and power projects worth 30 billion yuan (US$4.06 billion) in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

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Huaneng Ningxia Energy Co Ltd was set up to run the projects. It is 60 percent owned by Huaneng and 40 percent by Ningxia Power Generation Co Ltd, with registered capital of 1 billion yuan.

Located in the Taiyangshan Industrial Zone in the city of Wuzhong in Ningxia, the Huaneng projects include one coal-to-chemical project, two wind power plants, three coal-fired power plants and four coal mining ventures, a source told China Daily.

The coal-to-chemical project will produce dimethyl ether with capacity of around one million tons, said the source.

The two wind power plants will each have capacity of 50 megawatts (MW). The three coal-fired power plants include one with two 300-MW generating units, one with two 600-MW units, and one with two 1,000-MW units, the source said.

But he did not disclose the capacity of the four coal mining projects. "All the projects are still in the preparation stage," he said.

Huaneng plans to produce 325.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2007, with new installed capacity reaching 10,000 MW. The company's sales revenue for 2006 was 84.5 billion yuan, up 14.8 percent from 2005.

China's total installed power capacity reached 622 gigawatts in 2006, up 20.3 percent from 2005. Coal-fired power plants account for over 77 percent of the nation's total installed capacity, and China plans to accelerate efforts to close small coal-fired units that use outdated technology and excessive energy.

Wuzhong plans to develop the region's coal manufacturing industry to a capacity of 10 million tons and the coal-to-chemical industry to a capacity of 4 million tons by 2010, according to the local government.

The city also plans to increase installed power capacity to 3,000 MW in 2010, said the local government.

Ningxia will invest more than 100 billion yuan to build Asia's largest liquefied-coal base, according to the regional development and reform commission.