China Longyuan Power Group Corp plans to spend about 92 billion yuan ($13 billion) over the next five years to become the world's No 1 wind-power producer as global demand for clean energy increases.
The Hong Kong-listed company aims to install at least 16,000 megawatts of wind turbines in China and overseas by 2015, President Xie Changjun said in an interview after a climate conference in Beijing on May 10.
The expansion plan comes as the Chinese government encourages the use of renewable energy to cut reliance on more polluting coal. The Beijing-based company in December raised a net HK$16.7 billion ($2.2 billion) from the sale of 2.14 billion shares in Hong Kong in the world's third-biggest IPO by an alternative energy company.
"China so far has used only about 1 percent of its total estimated wind power resources and there is vast potential for future growth," Xie said. "We are also looking at opportunities overseas, including in South Africa, the US, Australia and Europe," he said.
Global investment in renewable energy surged 31 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, driven by wind power and demand in China, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said on April 12.
China Longyuan ranks fifth globally by wind-power capacity and plans to be third by 2012, according to Xie. The company had 4,503 megawatts of capacity last year and may have 6,500 megawatts by the end of this year, it said in March.
China Longyuan's shares fell 0.6 percent to HK$7.81 in Hong Kong trading on May 7, the stock's lowest level since listing. It has dropped 13 percent since its Dec 10 debut, compared with an 8.2 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
