CHINA TOPIX

03/29/2024 03:01:32 am

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China to Build World's Largest Solar Power

Photovoltaic power panels stand at Abaste's El Bonillo Solar Plant while wind turbines spin at a wind farm on the background on December 2, 2015 in El Bonillo, Albacete province, Spain.

(Photo : Getty Images) Photovoltaic power panels stand at Abaste's El Bonillo Solar Plant while wind turbines spin at a wind farm on the background on December 2, 2015 in El Bonillo, Albacete province, Spain.

China will soon become the home to the world's largest solar power as China Minsheng New Energy Investment Co. is set to develop a 2 gigawatts solar farm in the Ningxia region.

The private investor group will allocate $2.34 billion to install an estimated 6 million solar panels that will cover 4,607 hectares of land. Upon completion, it will produce a total capacity of 2 gigawatts, surpassing the scale of photovoltaics in place in Thailand at the end of 2015, according to Bloomberg.

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"The opportunities are huge" for solar development in China, Wang Jian, executive vice president of China Minsheng New Energy Investment Co., said.

The new Ningxia plant will be the fruit of China's ambitious plan to shift to 20 percent renewable energy by the end of the decade, the ZME Science reported. In just five years, investment increased nearly threefold to $111 billion from just $39 billion. Moreover, the solar power's electric capacity increased 168 times and wind power quadrupled.

Meanwhile, Minsheng New Energy, established by China Minsheng Investment Corp in October 2014, said it plans to allocate 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) to increase its photovoltaic power generation capacity to 12 gigawatts over the next five years.

As of June, the company has finished at least 50 percent of the Ningxia project and an estimated 380 megawatts have already been connected to the grid, Fan Cheng, deputy head of CM Guangfu (Ningxia) Investment Company, a unit of Minsheng New Energy, said.

Once completed, the Ningxia plant is anticipated to generate 2.73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which is equivalent to the 400-megawatt power produce by coal-fired plant.

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