One of China’s state-owned companies announced on Monday that it had connected the world’s largest solar plant to the grid in northwestern Xinjiang. The solar plant has a capacity of 5 gigawatts. Moreover, it spans an area of 200,000 acres in a desert area of the capital Urumqi. China’s state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) announced in a statement, citing the Power Construction Corp of China, that world’s largest solar plant has come online.
The solar plant will generate about 6.09 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year. This amount is enough to provide power for an entire year to the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea.
Before the launch of the plant in Xinjiang, the two largest operational solar facilities were also in western China, Longyuan Power Group’s Ningxia Tengger desert solar project and China Lüfa Qinghai New Energy’s Golmud Wutumeiren solar complex. Both plants have a capacity of 3GW, according to the Global Energy Monitor’s solar power tracker.
Xinjiang has a sparse population, making it an ideal location for solar and wind energy projects. It has recently become a popular location for large renewable energy bases that send most of their power across long distances to China’s eastern seaboard.
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The China National Petroleum Corporation also launched a solar project in the region recently to power its Tarim oilfield. Its 600,000-kilowatt solar power project covers a total area of more than 13.3 square kilometers. The project started construction in May 2023 and will likely have a capacity of 1.04 billion kilowatt hours.
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