A desert might not be the first place you ’d expect to be a hive of activeness , but northwestern China ’s Kubuqi Desert is currently buck the trend , as an challenging task to build a “ Solar Great Wall ” remain to transform the desolate landscape .
Once completed – expected to be sometime in 2030 – the solar farm will be 5 kilometers ( 3 mile ) wide and stretch for400 kilometers(250 mi ) across the George Sand . That might seem quite shortsighted in compare to the 21,196 - km ( 13,171 - mile)Great Wall of China , but its greatness aims to come from power rather than length .
The maximal generating electrical capacity of the farm is gestate to be 100 gigawatts , with 5.42 gigawatts having been establish so far , grant to country - owned newspaperChina Daily . That electrical capacity will come courtesy of million of solar panels , soaking up the desert ’s estimated 3,100 annual hour of sunshine .
It ’s hoped that upon completion , the vastsolar powerplant will generate enough electricity to power the country ’s Das Kapital urban center , Beijing .
According toChina Daily , Beijing consumed 135.8 billion kilowatt hours ( kWh ) of electricity in 2023 . It ’s anticipate that the farm will sire around 180 billion kWh of electricity by 2030 ; if the capital urban center ’s zip demand do n’t rove much further than they are currently , that would be enough to power not just Beijing , but its skirt areas too . It ’s also far more than the annual generation of theworld ’s magnanimous solar farm(also in China ) , which brook at a comparatively measly 6.09 billion kWh per year .
China is currently the world ’s expectant emitter of greenhouse gases , having pump out10.8 billion tonsof carbon copy dioxide in 2021 . In the Dalad Banner , where part of the Solar Great Wall is being establish , it ’s estimate that the solar farm could reduce carbon copy emissions in the part by around 31.3 million stacks , Li Kai , an official with the energy administration of Dalad Banner , tell apart China Daily .
It ’s also hoped that the solar farm will contribute to ongoing rejuvenation and the prevention of furtherdesertificationof the Kubuqi Desert , with the undertaking governing body aiming to treat intimately 27 million hectares ( 67 million Akka ) of desert . This could happen by the solar panel “ fixing ” the sand , acting as a happy chance for winds that would otherwise admit dunes to move , and put up shade for plants to develop .
The idea is n’t whole unfounded . Once innocent of vegetation due to persistent shaving , about 40 age of projects have figure greenery take back to one - third of the Kubuqi Desert – 10.7 straight kilometers(4.1 square miles ) of it in and around the be Junma Solar Power Station .
