Xinjiang forges ahead with renewable energy

Space saved

Solar power plants typically require more space than those powered by coal, due to the way the panels are set up.

To save space in densely populated regions, these devices are usually installed on rooftops. They are also floated in reservoirs. Creating such facilities on arable land can be extremely costly, not only because of the higher land price, but also as a result of annual compensation payments for crops that otherwise would have been grown and harvested.

The Hotan region, which comprises several large counties including Lop, is better known for its jade, silk and carpets, but it is also home to vast areas of the Gobi Desert, and thus much cheaper land. It enjoys about an average of 15 hours of sunlight a day.

These factors, together with newly built long-distance transmission cables that connect large areas of Hotan with China's eastern provinces, are attracting large numbers of solar power investors.

The previous lack of transmission infrastructure forced many renewable energy projects to remain dormant for part of the year, which lasted till 2016.

Tian said his company was attracted by the long hours of sunlight in Hotan, and started to expand its solar footprint in the region in 2011. Currently, the company's plants in Hotan have a total installed capacity of 890 MW.

The conversion efficiency of solar panels averages 18 percent across the industry. To boost output and curb land use, SPIC has invested in making such devices more efficient — by almost 25 percent in laboratory settings. "However, the sandstorms and dust in Lop adversely affect the performance of the solar panels," Tian said.

Workers at the plant said they use sprinklers once or twice a month to wash the panels. SPIC is also in talks with a robotics company to provide facilities with automatic cleaners.

"At this stage, using robotics is still much more expensive than manual labor, but we decided to go ahead with the plan, as it is the trend," Tian said.

The additional clean energy supply is expected to help the local mining industry go green. The beneficiaries include an energy-intensive nonferrous metal industrial park just a few kilometers away.

Raw materials

The park, which is still under construction, hosts a factory that produces lithium salts, a crucial raw material for making batteries for use at solar farms.

Lop is part of Xinjiang's plan to build itself into a renewable energy base with sprawling solar and wind farms to power local development projects and provide clean energy to industrial clusters in coastal regions.

The regional government aims for Xinjiang to transmit 180 billion kW of electricity outside the region from 2021 to 2025.

Officials said the installed capacity of renewable energy projects in the region will reach 82,400 MW by 2025.

"SPIC has settled in Hotan as part of efforts to fulfill its obligations as a State-owned enterprise," Tian said.

lilei@chinadaily.com.cn