China announces plans for world’s biggest wind farm on Mongolian border

The State Power Investment Corporation (Spic), one of China’s top five energy generators, has announced plans to build a 6GW windfarm in the north of the country, close to its border with Mongolia.

Spic announced that is has received planning approval for its project from the Ulanqab Municipal Development of Inner Mongolia. If it goes ahead, it would install wind turbines across an area of 3,800 square kilometres, roughly the same size as the UK county of Suffolk, at a construction cost of about $6.8bn.

The aim is to deliver almost 19TWh of unsubsidised electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei triangle.

Spic has not given details of the schemes schedule, but it said that it would be completed in time for the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are due to be hosted in Beijing.

As well as installing turbines, it will be necessary to build 12 ultra-high-voltage transmission grids to support the scheme.