China solar panel farm

How will China's massive solar farm work?

Workers prepare panels that will be part of the massive solar farm. A worker carries two flotation devices that keep the panels above water. China is now the world’s largest renewable energy investor. The government promises to spend $360 billion on clean energy projects by 2020, creating 13 million new jobs in the process.

Why is China's solar farm based on a giant panda?

“It is designed and built as the image of the Chinese national treasure – the giant panda,” explains a document from Panda Green Energy, the company that constructed the farm. China has more solar energy capacity than any other country in the world, at a gargantuan 130 gigawatts.

Where is Xinjiang's solar farm located?

The 3.5-gigawatt (GW), 33,000-acre solar farm is outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital. The state asset regulator’s website cited the Power Construction Corp of China and said it came online on Monday. The solar farm will generate about 6.09 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually.

Will China build solar farms in politically sensitive regions?

The IEA notes that China met its own 2020 target for solar energy capacity additions three years early. There may be another incentive behind China’s drive to build solar farms in some politically sensitive regions.

Where are China's solar farms?

The solar farms in Qinghai make the most of the clear skies and beating sun above the Tibetan Plateau (Credit: Getty Images) Citing data from the China Electricity Council, in the first six months of 2018, the capacity factor of Chinese solar equipment was just 14.7%, says Xu.

How much power does a Chinese solar farm use?

So while a Chinese solar farm may be billed as having a capacity of, say, 200 megawatts, less than a sixth of that on average actually gets used. The reasons for a low capacity factor can include things over which we have no control, such as the weather. But China’s capacity factors are unusually low.