A Jiuquan(in Gansu province) local official said: they willbegin to build the first 10 million-kW-level wind power station in China.

Gansu Province is a wind energy resource-rich areas, has the wind energy resources about total 237 million kilowatts, the available area or seasonal useful areas can be 176,600 square km, which is approximately 39% of the total area of the province, mainly concentrated in the Hexi Corridor and part of the mountain pass region. Especially in Jiuquan City, Wind energy resources are most abundant, there are known as "World Wind library" of Guazhou county and known as "a draught" of the Yumen City, Jiuquan can make use of wind energy resources in area of nearly 10 thousand square kilometers.

The planed largest wind power station was designed to have an installed capacity of 5.16 million kW by the end of 2010, 12.71 million kW by the end of 2015 and 20 million kW by the end of 2020, said Wu Shengxue,deputy head of the Jiuquan Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

"The installed capacity will eventually reach 40 million kW," he said. "Total costs on the project are predicted to exceed 120 billion yuan ($17.6 billion)."

"It will become another landmark project in China's 'Western Development' strategy after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and several West-to-East transmission projects of natural gas, petroleum and electricity," he said.

As a support for the wind power station construction, local authorities would launch other projects to manufacture air blowers, turbine blades and other equipment, he said.

The government of the remote Gansu Province aims to build "Three Gorges on the Land" with its abundant resources of wind power, Wu said. Under its blueprint, the 2020 installed capacity could surpass the current capacity of 18.2 million kW enjoyed by the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower station by total capacity.

In Jiuquan, an area of about 10,000 square km could be developed for wind power generation with a capacity of at least 40 million kW, Wu said.

To date, six wind farms are in operation in the city with a total installed capacity of 660,000 kw, he said.

"By the end of this year, the installed capacity in the city is expected to exceed 1 million kW," he added.