(Yicai Global) Dec. 8 -- Shares of Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower Engineering rose after the renewable energy construction engineer said it will invest CNY12.3 billion (USD1.8 billion) in a big solar power project with a supporting energy storage plant.

Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower [SHE: 002060] closed up 4.9 percent at CNY7.65 (USD1.10) today, after jumping by as much as 8.9 percent in the morning.

The new project, which will be located in the oasis city of Kashgar in the Gobi Desert region of China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, will have a 2,000 megawatt solar power plant and a 500 MW supporting energy storage power plant, with a 20-month construction period, the firm said late yesterday.

The price of the electricity produced by the plant will be CNY0.26 (4 US cents) per kilowatt-hour, taxes included, the Guangzhou-based company added. The expected payback period is nearly 14 years.

The local project company of Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower will fund, construct, and operate the project, the firm added, noting that the project company will raise no more than 50 percent of the investment on its own and obtain the rest by applying to an infrastructure investment fund set up by policy-oriented financial institutions.

This will be the second big solar project of Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower in Xinjiang. The company announced in May that it would invest CNY10 billion to build a 2,000 MW power station in the sun-drenched county of Awat.

Guangdong No. 2 Hydropower has been expanding into other clean energy fields in recent years. It has a total installed capacity of more than 1,542 MW of clean energy projects in operation, covering hydro, wind, and solar. Over 850 MW of that is solar power.

Editor: Martin Kadiev