The Kela photovoltaic power station, the first phase of the Yalong River Lianghekou hydro-solar integrated power plant project over the Yalong River in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, broke ground on July 8.
A ceremony is held on July 8 to announce the beginning of construction of the Kela photovoltaic power station in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
Developed by State Development and Investment Corp., Ltd., the Kela photovoltaic power station is expected to be the world's largest of its kind and a major renewable energy development and planning project in Sichuan during the nation's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.
It is the first hydro-solar complementary power station of the clean energy bases in the Yalong River Basin, one of the nine national clean energy bases in China, to break ground.
Built at an altitude of around 4,000 meters to 4,600 meters, the station has a total investment of over 5.3 billion yuan ($790 million).
Scheduled to be put into operation in 2023, it has an installed capacity of 1 million kW and is expected to work 1,735 hours annually, with an average annual power generation capacity of 2 billion kWh.
The power output equals that produced by burning more than 600,000 metric tons of standard coal annually, which eliminates emissions of over 1.6 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The station will contribute to realizing the nation's dual carbon goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and will play a demonstrative role in optimizing the country's energy structure and building a green, low-carbon, safe and highly-efficient modern energy system.
A design view of the Kela photovoltaic power station [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The Lianghekou hydropower plant is the leading reservoir power station over the middle reaches of the Yalong River and the largest reservoir power station in Sichuan.
According to the plan on integrated development of renewable energy in the Yalong River Basin, the total scale of the clean energy base in the area will exceed 80 million kW, including about 30 million kW of hydropower, more than 40 million kW of wind and photovoltaic power, and over 10 million kW of pumped storage power. Upon completion, it will become one of the world's largest green and clean renewable energy bases.
When an entire hydro-wind-solar integrated renewable energy demonstration base is formed in the Yalong River Basin, it is expected to be able to generate more than 220 billion kWh of power annually, equivalent to the power derived from burning about 70 million tons of standard coal and a reduction of about 180 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
