China's highest-altitude wind turbines in Xinjiang connected to grid

The first-phase wind turbines of the 300-megawatt wind power project in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have been connected to the grid, China Huaneng Group said on Monday.

The project, located in Aheqi County in the Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture of Kizilsu, is the highest-altitude wind power project currently in operation in northwest China, with elevations reaching up to 3,700 meters.

The plan is to install 45 wind turbines, each with a single-unit capacity of 6.7 megawatts. It will also include a 30-megawatt electrochemical energy storage station with a capacity of 60 megawatt-hours.

Once fully operational, the wind power project is expected to generate an average of 610 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, meeting the annual power demand of around 20,000 households, according to Dong Guoqiang, project manager of the project from China Huaneng Group.

The project will also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 500,000 tonnes per year, enhancing both local energy security and low-carbon development, Dong added.