The Baoding High-Tech Zone in North China’s Hebei province plans to expand its size to 130 square kilometers and increase its industrial output to 260 billion yuan, 3.6 times the level of 2010, during the 12th Five-Year period (2010-2015), local authorities said.

The ‘new energy’ industry will reach 150 billion yuan of that total, Sun Jinbo, director of the high-tech zone administrative committee, said during the 2011 China Energy Economy Forum in Beijing last Saturday.

For the past five years, the Baoding High-Tech Zone, driven by new energy and energy equipment industry projects, has strived to build “China’s Electric Valley”.

Its industrial revenues surged from 21.4 billion yuan in 2006 to 72 billion yuan in 2010. The new energy industry took the lion’s share of those revenues at 63 percent, maintaining a growth rate of more than 30 percent for several consecutive years.

Sun said the zone’s growth is due largely to a national new energy strategy, support from the local government, a geological advantage and the collaboration of world flagship enterprises such as Tianwei Group Co.

The zone has centered on six major industries: PV power generation, wind power, power transmission and transformation, power savings, power storage and electric automation. It is home to five State-level laboratories and enterprise technical centers and 23 national key projects.

By Guo Changdong and Zhang Nan