Chinese Wind Farm Makes Kyoto Profits

BEIJING, China -- - A wind farm in Inner Mongolia became the first Chinese renewable energy project to be selected by the Dutch government to help reduce worldwide air pollution under the 1997 United Nations Kyoto Protocol.

By producing electricity without emitting greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, then selling the credit it gets for keeping the air clean to the Dutch, the Huitengxile wind farm, northwest of Beijing, will pay for its own expansion.

"At the moment that they prove they've reduced emissions, we'll begin to pay," the Deputy Manager of Carbon Credits at the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, Egbert Liese, told Reuters in a telephone interview from Amsterdam.

The Netherlands on Thursday approved the first overseas sustainable energy projects it will fund in order to cut greenhouse gases under the Kyoto protocol.

The Dutch will purchase emission credits through the 18 projects, which aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 16 megatonnes, the environment ministry said in a statement.

Apart from China, the 18 projects which focus on sustainable energy and clean techologies, will take place in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, India, Indonesia, Jamaica and Panama.

Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, countries are allowed to fund projects such as wind parks, biomass-powered energy plants and solar energy projects in developing countries and get credits toward up to half their goal in cutting emissions.

The Dutch have undertaken to cut greenhouse gas emissions by six percent versus the level in 1990, during the period 2008 to 2012, with half the decrease realised outside the Netherlands.

State-owned Inner Mongolia Windpower Corp submitted plans to sell 500,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emmissions credits to the Dutch with the guidance of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association and IT Power, a London-based consultancy.

The 42 megawatt (MW) wind farm hopes to add new turbines and 35 MW of power with the money it earns selling its clean air credits to the Netherlands, which after the UN Climate Conference in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, agreed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by six percent from their 1990 level by 2012.

Huitengxile was one of five Chinese projects from among the 80 firms that expressed interest in the Dutch tender. It was one of two Chinese firms that made it to the last stage of 26, and it beat out a Gansu hydro plant to join the final 18, Liese said.

"The Chinese windfarm is a renewable project, it's feasible and they already have a good thing going," he said.

COAL SUPREME

China gets about 70 per cent of its energy from burning coal making it home to some of the globe's most polluted cities.

But the Huitengxile wind farm suggests that the profit motive could draw more support to clean energy development in China, said the head of IT Power's Beijing office, Alex Westlake, a wind engineer.

"This is a learning-by-doing project, and could unlock the door to more backing for clean power in China," Westlake said.

China, as a developing nation, is not bound by the goals for restraining carbon dioxide emissions laid out in the Kyoto agreement, but Chinese support is crucial for its survival.

It is the world's second-largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions, and the United States, the greatest emitter of greenhouse gasses, has long cited the fact that China is not bound by the protocol as one reason why it will not ratify the deal.