About 20% energy requirement of Beijing Olympic venues would be powered through wind energy with the commencement of operations at the wind power plant in suburban Beijing. The Guanting Wind Power Plant, which began operations Saturday, is the first large scale wind power project in the Chinese capital. The plant has an installed capacity of 64,500 kilowatts with 43 indigenously developed wind power units functioning. The first unit went into production on January 20, 2008 and has since supplied 35 million kWh of power to Beijing. The plant is expected to provide 100 million kWh electricity annually, sufficient to meet the daily power requirements of 100,000 homes. China indicated the plant would assist in cutting down carbon dioxide emission by about 100,000 tonnes and save 50,000 tonnes of coal every year.