Chifeng Wind Power Project

Located in Chifeng City in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of The People’s Republic of China, the wind power project delivers zero-emissions renewable electricity to China’s Northeast Power Grid. The project is validated and verified to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and has also registered and issued credits with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The project

The wind farm consists of 25 Vestas 2MW turbines with a total capacity of 50 MW which generate approximately 130,000 MWh of clean renewable electricity annually. This reduces CO2 emissions by displacing electricity which would have otherwise been drawn primarily from fossil fuel power stations; subsequently, the project generates 150,000 tonnes of emissions reduction on average per year.

The wind farm has contributed to the local economy and livelihood of residents through the creation of jobs – approximately 20 employees are currently working in full time operational roles while an additional 200 were required during the construction period. The project also improves the overall local air quality as it does not incur the environmental pollution (such as sulphur dioxide) or solid waste problems associated with coal-fired power plants.

Emission reductions in China

The People’s Republic of China is the world’s fastest-growing major economy, and the world’s largest exporting economy. The country has become the second largest consumer of electricity and the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in the world – approximately one third of those emissions are generated producing goods for export.

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China’s growth has meant an increasing requirement for energy and a reliance on fossil fuel to meet this demand. The country is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal (accounting for almost half of the world’s coal consumption) and the world’s second largest consumer of oil. The development of alternative types of energy supply is crucial in enabling China to grow without impacting the global need to reduce GHG emissions.

Though investment in natural gas, nuclear and renewable technologies is increasing in China, investment in coal-fired power generation still continues to grow. China currently derives nearly 80% of its electricity from conventional thermal sources primarily, which is dominated by coal. Wind power currently amounts to just 6% of the national capacity, but significantly less than that in terms of actual electricity generation; the lack of transmission infrastructure has left a significant amount of capacity underutilised, however the increase in renewable energy capacity in recent years has helped push for grid upgrades.1

MONGOLIA

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INDIA

BURMA

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NEPAL

BHUTAN

BANGLADESH

LAOS

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Project area coordinates:

Wengniute Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China.

longitude 117°49’00”-120°45’00”, and northern latitude 42°27’00”-43°25’00”.

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The region

China is a developing economy that still has significant hurdles to overcome. Nearly 15% of the population lives below the poverty line and around 400 million people live on less than $2 a day. The country also ranks 101 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index – a comparative global measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, standards of living and quality of life.2

The Inner Mongolia Region, located in the north of the country, has shaped the development of industry and the national economy due to its abundance of resources such as coal, natural gas and rare earth metals. The primary industries in Inner Mongolia are energy, chemicals, metallurgy, equipment manufacturing, and agriculture.

The city of Chifeng is located in the southeast of Inner Mongolia around 400km northeast of Beijing. Its economy is similarly dominated by minerals, energy, and an increasingly industrialised agricultural and animal husbandry sector for food processing. Chifeng has become the base for agricultural industry of the eastern part of Inner Mongolia with much of the surrounding land under cultivation. Large local coal deposits have stimulated the growth of coal mining and subsequent electric power generation.

The technology

Wind is an abundant energy resource which can be used to generate clean electricity through wind turbines. Wind power is produced by transferring the kinetic energy from wind to rotors. The mechanical energy from the wind turbine’s rotating blades then powers an electric generator.

The output of a wind turbine depends on the turbine’s size and the wind’s speed through the rotor blades. These blades range from around 30 to 90 metres in diameter and the supporting towers are roughly the same size in height. The power generated by utility-scale turbines varies from 100 kilowatts to as much as seven megawatts. Larger turbines are grouped together into wind farms, providing bulk power to the electrical grid which is sent through transmission and distribution lines to homes and businesses.

1http://www.eia.gov/countries/country-data.cfm?fips=CH 2http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/