World's largest desert wind, solar power project starts construction

The world's biggest wind power and solar power production base developed in the Gobi desert area officially started construction in the city of Ordos – located in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – on Dec 28.

The project is located in the Kubuqi Desert in the jurisdiction of Ordos' Dalad Banner. It will jointly be built by China Three Gorges Corporation and Inner Mongolia Energy Group.

The Kubuqi Desert is located in the northern part of the Ordos Plateau and is the seventh largest desert in China.

In 2014, it was identified by the United Nations Environment Program as a "Global Desert Eco-Economy Demonstration Area".

The project is designed to have a total installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts, including 8 million kW of photovoltaics, 4 million kW of wind power and 4 million kW of advanced high-efficiency coal power.

It's the first 10-million-kW-level new energy base in the country and it will receive a total investment of over 80 billion yuan ($14.41 billion).

The section currently under construction is the first phase of the 16-million-kW project. Construction will include a 1 million-kW solar power farm and energy storage facilities.

When fully completed, it will be able to supply about 40 billion kWh of electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region each year.

Of that, clean energy will account for more than 50 percent, which is equivalent to saving about 6 million metric tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 16 million tons.