AN energy firm in China’s coal hub of northern Shanxi Province has broken ground on a massive new 55 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion) project in combining wind turbines, solar panels and battery storage in an old coal mining area. State-owned Jinneng Holding Group Co. started construction on the project Friday, according to a report from Shanxi Daily. The facility in a derelict coal area in the mining hub of Datong will have 6 gigawatts of wind and solar capacity and 3.4 gigawatt-hours of energy storage. It will be connected to the grid by the end of 2025, feeding power to Beijing and its surrounding areas via the Datong-Tianjin ultra-high voltage power line, according to the report. Construction on the project is starting after a record-breaking year for renewable installations. While full-year figures aren’t yet available, by the end of November China’s new solar panels were nearly double those installed in 2022. (SD-Agencies) | 