Xinjiang forges ahead with renewable energy

He said Lop enjoys thousands of hours of very strong sunshine a year, enabling the plant to produce more than 320 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.

Last year, China's per capita annual power consumption was 947 kWh, National Energy Administration data show. Output from the industrial park meets the energy needs of 338,000 people a year. The park, although sizable compared with other renewable energy projects in China, which leads the world in solar power output, is dwarfed by most of its coal-powered or hydroelectric counterparts.

Despite this, Cao said such projects point the way to the future.

The service time for such infrastructure can be more than 20 years, with extremely low maintenance costs. In addition, the park is built on wasteland, and transforming the abundant sunlight into usable energy.

"Erecting solar panels in the desert can even curb sandstorms," Cao said.