China Longyuan Electric has commenced developed of a 200 MW solar power plant in the Golmud Desert of Qinghai, which will be the largest facility of its kind in the nation. The first phase of the AUD $700 million project is expected to have 36 million kWh of annual power generation capacity online by September of next year.
The Golmud desert is located in the Qaidam Basin and experiences 3,300 hours of sunshine annually, making it ideal for the generation of clean power via solar panels. The region has the highest level of solar irradiation in China.
Once completed, the solar farm will save 12,500 tons of coal annually and reduce yearly emissions of carbon dioxide and industrial dust by 6,067 tons and 175 tons respectively.
China Longyuan Electric Power Group, one of the five state-owned power generators in China, is no stranger to renewable energy – it’s also the nation’s largest wind power producer, with nearly 50 wind farms across the country. The company had a wind power generation capacity of 2,630 MW in 2008 and plans to boost this to 6,000 MW by 2010 and to 20,000 MW by 2020. Longyuan will likely become one of the world’s top three wind farm operators by 2012.
In late May, Longyuan also signed an agreement for a 300MW solar farm project with the municipal government of Chifeng, Inner Mongolia
Longyuan says it is also close to launching an IPO in Hong Kong, with the company aiming to raise as much as HK$5 billion
