State-owned power company China Three Gorges Renewables Group will build an 8 GW solar farm as part of a nearly $11 billion integrated energy project. This ambitious project underscores China’s commitment to renewable energy and its determination to meet the surging global electricity demand, which is rising at its fastest rate in two decades, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
To put the sheer size of the 8 GW solar farm in perspective, the three largest solar farms in the world by capacity are China’s Ningxia Tenggeli and Golmud Wutumeiren solar farms, with a capacity of 3 GW each, and a 3.5-GW solar farm outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital. The new project, therefore, represents a significant leap in scale for solar power infrastructure globally.
In addition to the massive solar farm, the $10.99 billion project will also consist of 4 GW of wind, 5 GWh of energy storage capacity, 200 MW of solar thermal, and (disappointingly) 4 GW of coal-fired power. It will be sited in Ordos, in northern China’s Inner Mongolia region, the Shanghai-listed company said in a stock filing. This integrated approach highlights the complex transition to renewable energy, balancing new clean energy sources with existing coal power.
China Three Gorges says that the enormous integrated energy site’s power will be dispatched to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster in northern China via an ultra-high voltage power transmission line. This strategic placement and distribution plan will ensure that the generated power meets the high demand in one of China’s most populous and industrially active regions.
The project will break ground in September and is expected to come online by June 2027. China Three Gorges Renewables will take a 56% stake, and Inner Mongolia Energy Group will control 44%, reflecting significant collaboration between state-owned enterprises to achieve national energy goals.
This development comes as global electricity demand is forecast to grow by around 4% in 2024, up from 2.5% in 2023, according to the IEA’s newly released “Electricity Mid-Year Update” report. Renewables are set to expand rapidly, with their share of global electricity supply forecast to rise from 30% in 2023 to 35% in 2025. Solar alone is expected to meet roughly half of the growth in global electricity demand in 2024 and 2025.
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