China transforms extreme frontier to renewables belt

As renewable energy has been gaining momentum in recent years, the government has vowed to further accelerate the construction of solar and wind power generation facilities in these areas. It has announced the second phase with an estimated investment of up to 3 trillion yuan ($442 billion) that will focus on related industries in the Gobi and other sandy and rocky regions.

Most of the projects will be located in the northwestern part of China that has vast renewable energy resources, including the Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous regions, it said.

By 2025, annual power generation from renewable energy will reach about 3.3 trillion kilowatthours and the wind power and solar power generation will double, according to the country's central economic planner.

As much as 33 percent of power supply to the national grid will come from renewable sources by 2025, up from 29 percent in 2020, it said in a document.

After years of efforts, the vast Gobi Desert in the northwestern part of China now boasts massive wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. Local governments are not only transforming their advantages in local resources into an economic advantage, but also ensuring sufficient power supply for the country, said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.

"China has been stepping up efforts in greening the deserts with local governments aiming to turn their desert regions, as well as the Gobi region and the outdated and shut-down coal mining land, to solar and wind power bases, taking advantage of the abundant renewable energy resources in the area," he said.

"The abundant renewable energy resources and preferential policies have attracted leading photovoltaic manufacturing enterprises such as GCL Technology Holdings Ltd, Tongwei Co Ltd, TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy Technology Co Ltd, Risen Energy Co Ltd and LONGi Green Energy Technology Co Ltd, to shape up the whole industrial chain."

The northern region of China has been witnessing a remarkable surge in the construction of solar and wind power parks in recent years along its desert belt, transforming the area into a bustling hub for renewable energy while burnishing China's credentials as an environmental leader, he said.

Inner Mongolia, for example, has 2,600 to 3,400 annual sunshine hours, and it ranks second only to Tibet autonomous region in the country in solar energy resources, which has emerged as a primary driver of the region's energy transformation.

However, Lin said the challenge at present is how to effectively and efficiently transport all the green energy produced in the western regions to the load center in East China.

Energy storage, as well as ultrahigh voltage power transmission lines — which could double the voltage of conventional high-voltage lines and allow them to transmit up to five times more electricity at minimal energy loss along the way — are believed to be the answer to China's energy imbalance, ensuring that the green but fluctuating energy source is not wasted.

As power generation using renewable energy requires the grid network to be steadier and quicker in responding to volatility and unpredictability, it is necessary to build a new power system with new energy as a principal component to help the government achieve its carbon peak and neutrality ambitions, Lin said.

With additional installations of wind and solar power and greater challenges in accommodating them, the UHV transmission will help boost confidence among investors to further build wind and solar power units, he said.

Yi Yuechun, deputy director-general of the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute, said it was necessary to optimize the allocation of energy storage while enhancing the supporting capacity of the power grid at the mega solar and wind bases. These bases are often located in areas where power demand and power grid adjustment and absorption capacity are limited.

The ultrahigh voltage power line is like a high-speed electric power railway. It has strong transmission capacity, low loss and long transmission distance for clean electricity. The transmission lines can not only transform resource advantages in western China into economic benefits, but also meet the urgent demand for green energy in the central and eastern provinces, he said.

According to Yi, China has so far completed the construction of 34 UHV projects nationwide with the transmission scale more than twice that of 10 years ago.

The State Grid Corp of China has been actively involved in the construction of UHV transmission lines in China in recent years. In February, it began construction of the Jinshang-Hubei 800-kilovolt UHV direct current power transmission project, stretching 1,901 kilometers to pass through four provincial regions, the highest-altitude UHV direct current power transmission project in the world.

The company has been at the forefront of UHV transmission technology worldwide and has undertaken several ambitious UHV transmission line projects in China.

These projects have been part of China's broader efforts to enhance its power grid infrastructure, improve energy efficiency, and support the development of renewable energy sources.

State Grid Corp has vowed to further step up research and development of UHV transmission technologies to further enhance the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of UHV transmission.