A biomass-fired power plant that burns plant and vegetable stalks to generate electricity went into operation on Monday in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The power plant, with an installed capacity of 30,000 kilowatts, is expected to burn more than 200,000 tons of stalks annually and generate 175 million kwh of electricity, according to Wang Jun'an, executive general manager of the Guoneng Wangkui Bio Energy Company in Wangkui County, Heilongjiang Province.

The plant is the first of its kind in Northeast China.

The National Bio Energy Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the State Grid Corporation of China, has earmarked 553 million yuan (US$74.17 million) for the project.

The plant will sell greenhouse gas emission reduction credits to Electricite de France (EDF) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Wang said.

The CDM, an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol, allows industrialized countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries. It is considered an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in industrialized countries.

National Bio Energy Company, which promotes China's renewable energy industry through biomass power generation, aims to generate 55 percent of the country's biomass power in 2010, or three million kilowatts, to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million tons.