Shunfeng Photovoltaic has released details of a plan to develop 1.5GW of solar capacity in the remote western Xinjiang province.

According to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the subsidiary Shunfeng Investment will partner with the Thirteenth Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) to build the installations.

A 500MW solar farm will begin the cooperation between the two. The RMB6 billion (US$980 million) project is expected to be finished by October 2017.

Shunfeng will pay XPCC a “resource compensation fee” worth a reported RMB 400 per mu (US$960 per hectare) annually for the 900 hectare site, around US$864,000 a year. A second agreement has been signed for a 1GW site to be completed by the end of 2015.

That site will yield US$115,171 in annual land rental for XPCC, according to figures extrapolated from the statement. Shunfeng will establish a project company specifically to handle the two mega-projects.

China recently announced graded solar tariffs to reduce the subsidies available in areas of lower cost and higher solar irradiation. Xinjiang was split between the first and second most productive tiers of the new programme and so receives the lowest and middle rate of subsidy.