On the third day of the Chinese new year, in the hinterland of the Tengger Desert in Zhongwei City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where everything is covered by snow, neatly arranged photovoltaic piles are already set in the sandy ground. This is the first base project of the "Desert, Gobi and Barren Land Project" with tens of millions of kilowatts capacity in China, which has been filed, started, and put into production. It is a key supporting project of the "Ningxia-Hunan Direct Current" focusing on developing desert photovoltaic bases and transmitting new energy. Currently under construction is the second phase of the Ningxia Tengger Desert New Energy Base, a 2-million-kilowatt photovoltaic project of China Energy Longyuan Power.
The second phase of the Tengger Desert New Energy Base's 2 million kilowatt photovoltaic compound project has an investment of 11.8 billion yuan, covering a total area of about 60,000 mu, with supporting construction of 2 330 kV booster stations and outgoing lines, and a 295 megawatt supporting energy storage power station. The project is divided into two construction zones, north and south, with a total of 307 arrays connected to the supporting 330 kV substations through 48 sets of 35 kV collector lines.
China Energy is vigorously promoting the development of large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases in the “Desert, Gobi and Barren Land” region. Following the overall concept of basing on large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases, supported by surrounding clean and efficient coal-fired power, and using ultra-high-voltage channels as carriers, it adheres to the combination of clean energy development and ecological environment governance, providing strong support for ensuring power supply, building new power systems, and achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
Engineer Li Chaoxiang explained: "The first phase of the 1-million-kilowatt project has already been completed and put into operation, and the second phase is planned to be connected to the grid in May this year. The second phase will extend further westward, and we will also build a third phase of 3 million kilowatts of photovoltaics. After these projects are completed, the Tengger Desert in Ningxia will 'disappear' from the map and be replaced by a sea of photovoltaic panels."
