BEIJING, Oct. 10, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- China has kicked off the production of

10-kilowatt vertical axis wind turbines that are of its own the intel (NASDAQ:INTC) lectual property, said the China Association for Science and Technolog y.

East China's Hohai University made the key technological breakthrou gh in wind turbines production, which will help slash the costs of Chi nese wind power.

Prof. Zheng Yuan of Hohai University said that the efficiency of ve rtical axis wind turbines is comparable with horizontal axis ones with

low maintenance and low noise levels. There is no need for yaw syst ems, and the wind turbine blades are easy to design.

China has more than 70 manufacturers of wind turbines with core tec hnologies mostly introduced from foreign vendors.