The 133 km long and 25 km wide solar power wall in Inner Mongolia will produce enough electricity to meet Beijing’s annual needs.
Workers install photovoltaic batteries in the Kubuqi desert. Image: China Daily
From the 7th to the 3rd century BC, Chinese dynasties built the 21,196 km long Great Wall. After two millennia, China is now creating another wall, to provide abundant solar energy, according to Popular Science.
Built in the Kubuqi Desert along the southern edge of the Yellow River in northern China, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Great Wall of Solar Power will stretch 133 km long and 25 km wide. China hopes the wall will provide 180 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year by 2030. According to Ordos Energy, the company in charge of the project, that capacity is enough to meet the energy needs of Beijing, where is using about 135.8 billion kWh of electricity per year.
However, some of the electricity produced will benefit local communities, according to Li Kai, an electricity industry official in Dalad Banner (a smaller subdivision in Inner Mongolia). The new transmission line will transport 48 billion kWh of electricity from the installation site to Beijing – Tianjin – Hebei each year. “All projects are invested by state-owned companies and local governments do not require funding. In total, about 50,000 job opportunities will be created,” Li said.
In addition to power capacity and employment opportunities, the project also has a positive conservation impact. The Yellow River is undergoing a process of desertification, in which the river basin slowly degrades to desert-like conditions. The installation will help remediate 27 million hectares of land in the region by providing shade and reducing evaporation. The panels also act as windbreaks, helping to protect the surrounding environment from soil erosion.
Shaded areas provide opportunities to grow crops. The project will plant about 2,400 hectares of crops to address the more desert-like areas of the Great Wall of Solar Power. Local authorities are also committed to creating a symbiotic relationship between economic development and ecological conservation.
Large-scale green energy installations, whether wind, solar or a combination of the two, are becoming increasingly popular as the world seeks to cut carbon emissions. This trend is also happening in the US.
Installing photovoltaics also comes with many environmental threats including habitat disruption and increased bird strikes, but scientists and engineers are looking for ways to increase the need for crops. pollinate around the installation site, creating corridors for wildlife.