NANJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The construction of China's first offshore wind power project with foreign investment began this week in the sea off Dongtai City, eastern China's Jiangsu Province.

The project, with a total investment of 8 billion yuan (about 1.13 billion U.S. dollars), is being jointly developed by the China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy) and French energy giant EDF Group.

With a total installed capacity of 500 megawatts, the project is expected to generate 1.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year while avoiding the burning of some 441,900 tonnes of standard coal, thus cutting the emission of 937,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 1,700 tonnes of sulfur dioxide.

"Taking the Dongtai offshore wind power project as a starting point, we will deepen cooperation with EDF Group in fields including wind power, photovoltaic power, hydrogen energy and energy storage," said Liu Guoyue, general manager of China Energy.

EDF Group invested more than 160 million U.S. dollars for a 37.5-percent stake in the Dongtai project. It is the company's largest investment in China's non-nuclear power market.

Jiangsu on China's eastern coast has been vigorously developing clean energy including wind and photovoltaic power. As of the third quarter of this year, the province's wind and photovoltaic power units have generating capacities of 11.495 million kilowatts and 16.46 million kilowatts, up 17.2 percent and 13.9 percent year-on-year, respectively.