On the morning of 28 December, the Supcon Delingha 350,000-kW CSP demonstration (pilot) project officially broke ground in Delingha City, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, marking a brand-new milestone for the global CSP sector.
As one of the world’s largest tower CSP projects under construction or in planning—both in installed capacity and thermal-storage capacity—the project represents a total investment of roughly RMB 5.567 billion and is equipped with a 14-hour ultra-long-duration storage system. After completion, it is expected to generate 985 GWh of clean electricity annually, enough to cover the full-year demand of 500,000 households. Each year it will also save about 295,000 t of standard coal and cut CO₂ emissions by 1.5303 million t.
The plant will deploy globally leading tower CSP technology with a 14-hour storage system, adopting a low-tank thermal-storage design and new-generation intelligent high-precision 37 m² heliostats among its core technologies. The facility is being invested in and built by Zhejiang Zhongguang New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a governing member of the China Solar Thermal Alliance. Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited won the first survey-and-design package, while Northwest Electric Power Design Institute Co., LTD, of China Power Engineering Consulting Group secured the second survey-and-design package.
Included in Qinghai Province’s annual CSP demonstration (pilot) development plan, the project will follow standard construction procedures and be built as a stand-alone CSP plant. From the date of commercial operation, its feed-in tariff will be RMB 0.55/kWh (tax included). The plant will not participate in electricity-market trading.