CANBERRA, Australia, April 12 (UPI) -- China's biggest coal producer, Shenhua Group, is considering investing in Australia's wind power industry.
Shenhua Group is pondering a joint investment project with Hydro Tasmania that could see the pair invest $1.6 billion by the end of the decade to build Australian wind farms.
The companies initialed an agreement to evaluate a further 700 megawatts of wind projects for possible joint investment, expanding their partnership on previous projects, Hydro Tasmania stated this week, The Canberra Times reported on Friday.
If the Shenhua investment proceeds, it will support the Australian government's program to generate 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by the end of the decade, with the Australian forecasting to have up to $15.5 billion of investment in new wind farms by then.
Hydro Tasmania is currently developing a proposal to build a 600-megawatt wind project on Tasmania's King Island at an estimate cost of roughly $2 billion.
