WORLD WIND ENERGY NET

China's southern island province of Hainan is planning to construct 12 wind farms in order to help alleviate power supply shortages in the province and promote the use of renewable energy, local media reported today.

Hainan's  development  and  reform  department aims to construct between four to  six  wind  farms by 2010 that will provide the province with an additional power generation capacity of between 250 megawatts to 300 MW, the major newspaper in Hainan's capital, the Haikou Daily reported.

A development blueprint for the  project  has  taken into account the province's geological  location  and long coastlines, and proposed that wind farms  be constructed near the towns of Huiwen, Moon Bay, Baohujia,Chaotanbi, Yubao, Maxi, Lingaojiao, Eman, Haiwei, Sigeng, Gancheng and Yingge.

The province is currently home to only one wind farm, which is located in the town of Basuo in Dongfang City and which currently sees annual utilization hours in excess of 6,000 hours.

Hainan's demand for power has risen dramatically in recent years. Unless new generators can be constructed and LNG supplies boosted to adequate levels, the island province is expected to face a power shortage of around 430 MW in 2008.

Though Hainan currently has 1,920 MW of aggregate installed capacity, other power sources have been unable to fill gaps in supply. During a power shortage which occurred in April, three of the province's LNG power plants were operating at 100 MW below capacity due to limited LNG supplies and two hydropower projects, with a total generation capacity of 320 MW, were unable to operate at all due to low water levels.