The 50 MW Delingha 50 MW solar thermal power plant has been put into operation in China’s northwest province of Qinghai, CGN New Energy has announced.
The project is China’s first large commercial parabolic trough concentrated solar power (CSP) plant and makes the country the eighth in the world to have large-scale solar thermal energy capacity.
The plant occupies a 2.46 km2 area on a high plateau and was first connected to the grid in June 2018. It is equipped with 9 hours of molten salt thermal energy storage and is the first in a planned batch of 20 CSP projects in China.
CGN said that it had to adapt the Delingha plant to the cold temperatures and oxygen deficiencies on the 3000 m-high plateau, including the step-by-step injection of heat transfer oils.
Construction of Delingha started in August 2015. The project is supported by a preferential loan from the Asian Development Bank.
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