Wind farms operator China Longyuan steps up overseas expansion, follows Belt and Road
Company president says new projects under way in Poland, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the United States
China Longyuan Power Group Corporation, Asia’s largest wind farms developer, is expanding further overseas with projects in Poland, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the United States, following the successful start of a wind farm in South Africa, China’s first in the continent.
The company, a unit of the world’s largest power producer China Energy Investment Corporation, is taking a cautious approach abroad, aware of the risks it will encounter, president Li Enyi told reporters on Tuesday, a day after the firm posted an 8.4 per cent rise in net profit to 3.85 billion yuan (US$608 million) for last year.
“Our new overseas projects are in early stages of development and are mostly in nations covered by China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative’,” he said, referring to Beijing’s plan to link countries around the world in a trading network.
“We are focused on countries that are geopolitically stable, have a sound legal environment and a well established market-based economy.”
Li would not say how large the projects were or whether some of them would be completed this year or next, saying only that the company is taking a “stringent and detailed” approach to risk management.
Last December Longyuan commissioned a 244.5 megawatt (MW) project in South Africa, which was China’s first greenfield wind farm investment in the continent.