Today (October 1), the Qinghai Gonghe million-kilowatt solar-thermal and photovoltaic (PV) project — China's first million-kilowatt-scale clean energy facility integrating photovoltaic power generation, solar-thermal energy storage, and electric-to-heat conversion — was successfully connected to the grid, marking the official debut of China's first three-tower solar-thermal base.
Located in Gonghe County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, the project has a total installed capacity of 1,000 MW, consisting of a 900 MW photovoltaic plant and a 100 MW molten-salt solar thermal tower power plant. The solar-thermal field is equipped with more than 10,000 heliostats covering a total aperture area of approximately 500,000 square meters. These tens of thousands of mirrors track the sun in coordination, concentrating solar radiation onto a receiver atop the absorption tower to heat molten salt. The stored heat is then used to generate steam, which drives a steam turbine generator to produce electricity. In addition, surplus power from the adjacent PV plant can be stored in the molten salt tanks through electric heating equipment — essentially equipping the solar power station with a "thermal energy warehouse," allowing sunlight captured during the day to continue generating electricity at night.
Once operational, the project is expected to deliver an average of more than 2.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to the grid annually, saving approximately 690,000 tons of standard coal per year and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 2.07 million tons.
This "PV + solar thermal" coupled operation model stores solar energy to provide power support during evening peak demand periods, enabling new energy to expand from "generating according to weather" toward "supplying power according to grid demand," and provides an engineering demonstration for large-scale new energy development and coordinated grid operation.
According to previous reports, the site of the PowerChina Gonghe 1,000 MW PV and Solar-Thermal Project is located within the Hainan Ecological Solar Power Generation Park in Gonghe County, Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai Province, at an average elevation of approximately 2,872 meters. The solar-thermal portion has an installed capacity of 1 × 100 MW, adopting molten-salt tower technology, with a tentative total heliostat aperture area of approximately 500,000 square meters and a receiver power of 260 MWt. Binary molten salt is used as the heat transfer and storage medium, with an equivalent storage duration of 8 hours. The project was constructed under a general contract by Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited(PowerChina Northwest), and Dongfang Boiler CO., LTD. won the bid for the 100 MW CSP project's concentrating solar collection system and steam generator system.