The 2.2 GW facility was built by the state-owned Huanghe Hydropower Development.
The station cost $ 2.2 billion to build, with a further $ 3.2 billion spent by the State Grid Corporation on an extra-high voltage line that transports generated electricity to more densely populated areas of the country.
This is the first such line capable of delivering 100% renewable energy over long distances.
This plant is second only in size to Bhadla Solar Park in northern India, which has 45 MW more generating capacity.
China plans to build the world’s largest supergrid, connecting the country’s six regional power grids and transferring electricity from renewable sources from west to east, where most of the demand for this energy is located.
In September this year, China’s Secretary General Xi Jinping promised at the UN General Assembly that China would achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. According to PV Magazine, China will need to install 1.9 TW of solar generating capacity by mid-century.
The largest solar power plant in China before the opening of the station in Qinghai was a solar battery park in the Tenger Desert in the northwestern province of Ningxia with a capacity of 1.5 GW.
The plant, which is part of a planned 16 GW renewable energy complex, was completed in four months and includes a 200 MW energy storage system supplied by Hefei-based solar technology company Sungrow.
The new station is five-phase and consists of 672 blocks with over 7 million individual modules.
