Beijing and Zhangjiakou are planning a joint project to use wind power for heating as a step toward controlling air pollution.

A pilot plan being launched in Yanqing county in northwest Beijing is expected to begin in 2017.

Yanqing county borders Zhangjiakou, in northwest Hebei province, where there is abundant wind power.

Beijing and Zhangjiakou are required by the National Energy Administration to coordinate related wind power generation companies, power grid sectors and heating companies to initiate a detailed and feasible implementation plan.

China's current energy consumption mainly comes from coal. But coal burning is a main cause of air pollution, which has become a key concern for Beijing and its neighboring regions of Hebei and Tianjin.

As the development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei is integrating, the region's areas should cooperate in making full use of clean energy for heating, the NEA said.

Beijing, at the center of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, has a population of more than 20 million and is in great need of power and heat, while the Hebei city of Zhangjiakou boasts abundant wind energy.

In 2007, the Bashang region in Zhangjiakou was approved as China's first wind power base, with generation capacity reaching 1 million kilowatts.

The city can now generate 6.57 million kilowatts a year with wind power, according to the Zhangjiakou Development and Reform Commission.

Experimental projects in Jilin province and the Inner Mongolian autonomous region have provided useful experience, but the transmission of wind energy is still a problem, said an engineer surnamed Guo at the Electric Power Research Institute of Hebei.

"Wind is unpredictable. It's strength and direction are hard to predict, so wind power is not as stable as thermal power," Guo said.

Contact the writers through [email protected].