China's Xinjiang sizzles with green energy

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a major power supplier in China, has accelerated the development of green energy as it recorded higher installed capacity in 2013.

Statistics with the Xinjiang branch of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) showed that by 2013, the combined installed capacity of wind power, hydropower and solar power stations exceeded 1,368 million KW, accounting for about one third of all installed capacity in Xinjiang.

The installed capacity of wind power stations reached 500 million KW, nine times of that in 2009, while the figure of solar power stations increased to 277.1 million KW from zero in 2010, according to a report released by the SGCC Xinjiang branch on Sunday.

Xinjiang is rich in both traditional and new energies.

A project to connect the Xinjiang power grid to the northwest China grid was launched in 2010 to transmit Xinjiang's redundant electric power to other parts of the country. The money made from this is used for developing Xinjiang.

The SGCC Xinjiang branch has put an average annual investment of 500 million yuan towards green energy projects.

Total installed capacity is expected to reach 6,048 million KW by the end of 2014, and that of green power will exceed 2,200 million KW.