Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 01 2023

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec

China looks north for

clean energy

CHINA
WORK has started in the extreme north of Authorities in the capital repeatedly point to
China on a large-scale CNY80bn ($11bn) solar 2030 as the year carbon emissions will peak in
and wind renewable energy facility. China.
Located in the remote Inner Mongolia region, This 1,200-GW figure includes the aforemen-
the site in question is the latest step in Beijing tioned 450 GW of capacity in the more remote
looking to use little visited parts of the country to Inner Mongolia region and elsewhere, with a
help generate green energy for hundreds of mil- reported 95 GW already under construction in
lions in the densely populated coastal cities. other pockets of northern and western China.
And with Inner Mongolia, a 2,400-mile In a statement issued by China’s Assets
(3,840 km) wide crescent shaped region occupy- Supervision and Administration Commission,
ing around 1.2mn square km separating north- the 16-GW site is said to be just one of 22 green
ern China from neighbouring Mongolia proper, energy facilities launched by CTG, although it
it is understood to be the site most energy related is by far the biggest; the remaining 21 adding
government agencies and developers are setting up to a total of 3.6 GW on the back of a further
their sights on. CNY21bn in investments.
For the most part the area is a combination Crucially for such remote sites, CTG also
of cold arid landscapes or unpopulated areas of referred to the current plans including energy
steppe. storage capacity, although no clear dates on
It is in one part of this expanse of steppe that completion or future link possibilities to existing
construction has started, in the Kubuqi Desert, infrastructure were given.
400 km west of Beijing. Existing renewables projects in the region
When complete, the facility will generate up continue to be added to, with a flurry of activity
to 16 GW of capacity, according to China Three over much of the past 12 months.
Gorges Corporation (CTG), one of a pair of The largest solar facility in a desert region at
firms behind the programme. present, the Junma site covering 1.4mn square
The project is just one part of a 450-GW plan metres, has alone generated over 2.3bn kWh of
Beijing has for the Inner Mongolia region over clean electricity according to the State Power
the next few years. Investment Corporation (SPIC) project contrac-
Half of the 16 GW will come from solar tor, Nei Mongol Energy Co.
installations, with 4 GW each from wind power Construction of large-scale solar facilities in
and “upgraded coal power” making up the total remote regions is far from simple, says Miao Rui-
sources indicate. jun, deputy head of Mengxi New Energy Dalad
Initial projections forecast up to 40bn kWh of Photovoltaic Power Station on behalf of SPIC Nei
clean energy electricity each year subsequently Mongol Energy Co., attributing at least some of
transmitted east to the Chinese capital and sur- the problems thrown up to the location: “Build-
rounding regions of Tianjin and Hebei, accord- ing a photovoltaic power station in the desert is
ing to China’s domestic news agency Xinhua. not easy, and requirement for solar equipment is
The Kubuqi Desert facility will also, tempo- higher due to the windy and sandy environment
rarily at least, be ranked as the world’s biggest in the desert.”
clean energy facility in a desert region, says CTG. For now, China’s National Energy Admin-
In the long term, Beijing is hoping to install istration remains on track, officially at least,
1,200 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, to help the central government reach its
with the lion’s share taken up by a combination 1,200 GW by 2030 benchmark, desert sands
of solar and wind. notwithstanding. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 03•January•2023