China’s solar-powered Tarim Desert Highway, the longest photovoltaic irrigation and sand control project in the country, has generated over 5 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity as of Monday, according to PetroChina, the nation’s largest oil and gas producer.
Stretching 522 kilometers across the Taklimakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the highway is equipped with 86 solar power stations. This zero-carbon demonstration project replaces diesel generators for water pumping and irrigation, providing sustainable energy to irrigate over 3,100 hectares of ecological protective forests along the route.
“All the 109 water wells along the road utilize clean electricity for water pumping and irrigation,” said Wen Zhang, deputy general manager of the PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Branch. “The technical requirement of photovoltaic power generation and seven-hour energy storage can be met.”
The solar stations, with a total installed capacity of 3,540 kilowatts, generate approximately 1.1 million kWh of electricity daily. During the transformation of water well houses along the highway, engineers designed three types of photovoltaic power generation equipment and adopted energy storage systems to ensure the normal operation of water pumping devices even without sunlight.
The project implements a novel “sunlight nurturing greenery” approach by integrating photovoltaic power generation along the desert highway, according to Meng Panlei, power engineer at the New Energy Division of the PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Branch. This initiative features a sustainable development model that encompasses power generation from solar panels and cultivation beneath them. It also includes desert control, soil improvement, and comprehensive water resource management, all aimed at transforming the ecological environment within the desert’s core.
Technical experts estimate that the project will reduce diesel consumption by approximately 1,000 tonnes and decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 3,410 tonnes annually.
Reference(s):
China's solar-powered highway yields 5M+ kWhs of green electricity
cgtn.com
