CHINA Huaneng Group, the nation's biggest electricity producer, agreed to form a venture with Invesco Ltd to identify private-equity investment opportunities in power generation.

The utility's Huaneng Capital Services unit will own 50 percent of the joint venture with Invesco WLR Ltd, a subsidiary of the Atlanta-based fund manager, the two firms said in Beijing yesterday.

Huaneng and Invesco aim to tap one of the world's fastest-growing markets for carbon trading and renewable-energy projects, with China poised to surpass the United States as the biggest emitter of climate-altering gases. The fastest-growing major economy faces such acute power shortages that electricity-sapping industries including aluminum smelters have had to halt production.