Wind power in China’s Sichuan province reduces CO2 pollution every year
The Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture was home to Sichuan’s first ever wind power base in 2011, and it is now the largest one in Southwestern China. Zheng Songwu has this report.
Nobody had believed that the wind in Sichuan could prove as effective as it is today, mainly due to the technology at the time still being in development. That was until Dechang, a county located in the south of the province proved otherwise.
ZHANG HUI Deputy Director, Dechang Development and Reform Bureau “The wind power in Dechang was very sufficient, the wind direction was stable, and always concentrated down the valley. Its speed was a steady six meters per second, so we believed these were all good elements towards building a wind power base.”
ZHENG SONGWU Dechang, Sichuan Province “I’m now in Dechang County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. The first wind-power base in Sichuan was built here in 2011 when it only had eight wind turbines. But today, there are 84 wind turbines working here, and they have the capacity of 400 million Kilowatt-hours per year.”
With a capacity of 400 million Kilowatt-hours per year, both the weather and the turbines have their part to play.
GUO YUHENG Manager, Dechang Wind-power Development Company “One turbine can generate 60,000 Kilowatt-hours per day, so 84 can generate over five million Kilowatt-hours each day.”
The first eight turbines are still running today, so far they have had a cumulative capacity of 300 million kilowatt-hours, saving about 100,000 tons of coal and reducing 200,000 tons of carbon. To develop the wind power industry, Dechang also set up a company to produce the turbines. More than one hundred turbines on average are produced by the company every year, selling to other cities in Southwest China. Besides the wind, Dechang is also looking at other ways to harness environmentally friendly power.
ZHANG HUI Deputy Director, Dechang Development and Reform Bureau “Solar energy and hydro-energy, as well as our forest resources, are also sufficient, and we will make our county a big clean energy base in Sichuan to save energy for the world.”
As the biggest wind power base in Sichuan Province, 90 percent of the counties and cities in Liangshan Yi are developing the wind power industry, that’s according to local officials. And by 2025, the wind power industry in Liangshan is expected to reduce over nine million tons of carbon. Zheng Songwu, CGTN, Sichuan Province.
