Beijing, Dec 4 (IANS): China has begun constructing its largest wind farm at Nanri Island, in Fujian province, with an installed capacity of 400,000 kw, authorities announced on Friday.

The wind farm, which is expected to be completed by 2018, will yield 1.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, equivalent to burning 450,000 tonnes of coal, while saving 4.4 million tonnes of water otherwise used for thermal power generation.

The project is part of a Chinese effort to reduce dependency on coal, the main energy source in the country (66 percent in 2013), in favour of renewable energy sources, EFE news reported.

In 2014, China put into operation renewable energy installations (biomass, geothermal, solar, wind and hydropower) yielding around 35 gigawatt, more than the US, Britain and France combined.

On Wednesday, the Chinese government announced a modernisation plan for the country's thermal power stations to reduce their toxic emissions by 60 percent before 2020, a measure expected to reduce the country's carbon dioxide emissions by around 180 million tons annually.

At the COP21 climate change summit in Paris, 20 countries, among them the five most-populated ones - China, US, India, Indonesia and Brazil - agreed to double their investments in clean energy research to tackle global climate change.