NANJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Construction on a wind power project, with a generating capacity of 100,000 kilowatts per year, began Wednesday in Rudong county in east China's Jiangsu province.

Costing 800 million yuan (approximately 97 million US dollars), the wind power project is scheduled to go into operation in 2005, said Zhan Lifeng, magistrate of Rudong County.

Currently, the county has 13 wind-measuring towers, each 70 meters high, along its coastline and has established data on wind power resources.

County head Zhan Lifeng said, following the current 100,000- kilowatts wind power project, Rudong plans to build the second and third-phase wind power project, with a combined generating capacity of 750,000 kilowatts.

Besides wind power projects, Rudong county will also build power projects to make best use of local rich solar energy, tide energy and other resources to generating electricity.

Zhan, the county head, estimated that upon completion of the planned energy projects in Rudong in 2010, his county is expected to have a total generating capacity of 926,000 kilowatts. These projects can generate 2.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, 2.5 times the planned power consumption in the county in 2010.

Acute shortage of resources, environmental pollution and ecological deterioration have prompted the Chinese government to attach great importance to developing wind power industry. In 1996, the government drafted a plan to encourage development of domestic technologies to manufacture large and medium-sized units for wind power generating. China's investment in the industry totaled 1.5 billion yuan (about 180 million US dollars) in the five-year period from 2001 to 2005.

Currently, China has 20 small-sized wind power generating units in its western regions. These play a vital role in enabling local farmers and herders to have easy access to electricity. In other areas, including Guangdong, Fujian, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, 26 wind power fields generate a combined 500,000 kilowatts.

As the first franchise wind power project approved by the Chinese government, the current Rudong wind power project was designed as a trial project to sum up experience for large-scale production of wind power and for the commercialized operation of wind power projects in China, said Zhou Fengqi, an official in charge of development of recycling energy resources with the State Development and Reform Commission.

China would continue to enhance the growth of wind power through franchise operation of wind power projects. By 2010, the country would have wind fields with the ability to generate four million kilowatts, said Zhou.