Page 12 - AsiaElec Week 09 2022

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec

China to expand

renewables footprint

in remote Gobi Desert

JAPAN CHINA’S National Development and Reform areas.
Commission (NDRC) has announced a series of A further 30% of smaller-scale projects will
projects aimed at adding 455 GW of renewable be spread over other sites in and bordering the
energy to the national grid by 2030. 1.3mn square kilometre Gobi, including former
The majority of the ‘Northern Projects’, as coal mining areas long considered to be mined
they are being called, are to be located across four out.
main sites in the remote Gobi Desert region of The NDRC has further indicated that around
northern China near the border with Mongolia. 200 GW of the total is now forecast to be brought
Wind, and later solar projects, in the remote, online and generating electricity by 2025.
sparsely populated areas in the extreme north Of this, 50 GW will be set aside for local area
and west of the country was first given serious consumption, with the remaining 150 GW going
consideration around fifteen years ago, although to the national grid.
issues with long-distance transmission of power Key to the success of the overall project will
generated along with infrastructure mainte- be effective transmission of energy generated;
nance have often been cited as insurmountable an issue that has ultimately blighted investment
reasons by many private investors unwilling to by overseas investors for years, with Japan’s Soft-
commit to such large-scale plans in hard to reach bank in the mid-2010s optimistically having
areas. promoted plans for massive wind farm projects
August, 2009, saw the breaking of ground in the Gobi Desert region, with energy generated
on the first large-scale solar power station in to be shipped all the way back to Japan.
the region, and by 2015, an estimated 5 GW had The transmission of power generated over
been installed in north China’s Gansu region – such great distances is an issue China Energy
much of which is taken up by the Gobi – with research committee chief Wang Weiquan is all
local government targets in recent years aiming too aware of, with, according to Wang, ultra-
to add 500 MW per year. high-voltage transmission lines powered by
The NDRC of late started moving forward clean-coal power plants the minimum require-
with its own development of the area, however, ment to aid in this goal.
with a November, 2021 announcement, reveal- In a missive sent to local media, Wang said
ing plans for an initial 97 GW of projects in the that the larger projects, most in the extreme west
Gobi. of China, if properly equipped, will prove the
Those first plans centred on a mix of wind most cost-effective given current issues facing
and solar projects to be laid out to take advan- infrastructure construction, later operations and
tage of the Gobi being one of the windiest places ongoing maintenance.
in China with over 2,400 hours of sunlight each According to a senior engineer at China
year. International Engineering, Mr. Zhang Jianhong,
The NDRC plans have now been enlarged this will in a knock-on effect then see the smaller,
several times over to 455 GW of wind and solar secondary projects primarily sited in the north
energy capacity, although details remain uncon- of China being used to generate capacity to later
firmed on the exact breakdown. be distributed to more localised regional popula-
Just over 50% of the 455 GW planned will be tion centres currently devoid of access to reliable
sited across four largely desert locations in the electricity sources.™
Badain Jaran, Kubuqi, Tengger and Ulan Buhe

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 09 02•March•2022