(Yicai) Sept. 27 -- Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower Engineering, a Chinese renewable energy developer, said it plans to spend CNY14 billion (USD1.9 billion) on a new solar power farm to expand the size of its clean energy business.

The photovoltaic power station, destined for the city of Pu'er in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, will have an annual capacity of 3.5 gigawatts of electricity, the Guangzhou-based company said in a statement late yesterday.

The solar farm will be built along with an energy storage battery and equipment production project that will cost CNY7.2 billion (USD985 million), according to an agreement signed recently by Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower, its partner Tianli Energy Storage Technology, and the local government, the firm added.

Shenzhen-based Tianli Energy will be responsible for investment and construction of the energy storage-related plants, the firm said. Under the deal, the local government will approve the solar farm’s construction only after part of the energy storage project begins mass-production, it added.

The first phase of the PV station will have a capacity of 0.8 GW, its construction will begin within two months after Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower secures development rights and completes the corresponding registration, the company noted. 

It is expected to take eight months to build the solar power plant, which should be ready for full-capacity connection to the power grid another four months after that, the company added.

In separate announcements yesterday, Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower also said it will invest CNY600 million (USD82.1 million) in a 100-megawatt wind farm in the southwestern city of Chengdu. It has also inked a deal with Jiangsu Nengying New Energy Technology Development to construct a gravity energy storage project of up to 2 gigawatt-hours and a 5 GWh wind and solar power generation project within three years, it noted.

Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower, which was solely a hydropower station developer, has recently ventured into other types of clean energy projects. The total installed capacity of its hydro, wind, solar, and other green energy projects exceeds 2,520 megawatts, according to its website.

Shares of Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower [SHE: 002060] closed up 1.1 percent at CNY5.51 (75 US cents) apiece today, after jumping by as much as 2 percent in the morning trading session. 

Editor: Martin Kadiev