Chinese wind in Kazakhstan turbines

Central Asia's largest wind power project with a generating capacity of 100 megawatts built by a Chinese firm, with a total of 40 wind turbines, located near the city of Zhanatas, Kazakhstan, was connected to the grid on Sunday. Global Times reports that the wind farm has the capacity to generate 350 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which can meet the daily electricity demand of 1 million households.

The wind farm is expected to save roughly 110,000 tons of standard coal every year and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which plays an important demonstration role for Kazakhstan's environmental protection, according to a statement sent by the project contractor, Chengdu Engineering Corporation Limited, one of subsidiaries of Chinese state-owned enterprise Power Construction Corporation of China, to the Global Times on Monday. 

At the same time, the project can reduce emissions of 1,031 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions, 934 tons of nitrogen oxides, 289,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 322 tons of smoke and dust, and 32,900 tons of ash and slag every year.Each wind turbine weighs about 300 tons and reaches nearly 150 meters tall, the Xinhua News Agency reported in June. 

The wind farm was initially included in the list of China-Kazakhstan cooperation projects in 2018 and the construction started in July, 2019, marking the largest wind power generating project in Central Asia.

Difficulties such as repeated coronavirus outbreaks, detention of equipment by the customs, and the impact of the construction period during the frozen soil period were overcome by the construction team. The first batch of wind turbines were connected to the grid in September, 2020. All 40 wind turbines were hoisted in June, 2021.

China has been contributed significantly to the development of renewable energy in Kazakhstan, according to Xinhua. Two thirds of the 1,500 megawatt new renewable energy capacity in Kazakhstan was built with the help of Chinese partners in the past four years.