China’s first ‘concentrated solar power, thermal energy storage, photovoltaic and wind power’ project goes into full production

A milestone for renewable energy in China in Yumen City, Gansu Province, China National Nuclear Corporation’s Xinhua Hydropower Company put into full production its ‘Solar Thermal Plus’ demonstration project on September 20.
It has a capacity of 100 megawatts and marks a major advancement in the integration of concentrating solar power, thermal storage, photovoltaic, and wind power.
This project boasts a total installed capacity of 700 megawatts, and is expected to generate over 1.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually – making it a key component of China’s first batch of large-scale wind and solar energy bases in desert regions.
The project’s solar thermal power generation follows the molten salt linear Fresnel technology route. Multiple primary reflectors are placed close to the ground. They track the movement of the sun and reflect sunlight on to the secondary reflectors. The secondary reflection concentrates solar radiation onto the vacuum collector tubes, heats the heat-absorbing fluid, and generates electricity through a thermal cycle.