Remote Corner of China Unveils $25 Billion Clean Energy Push

By Bloomberg

Feb 07, 2023

image is BloomburgMedia_RPOTLAT0G1KZ01_07-02-2023_08-00-07_638113248000000000.jpg

Photovoltaic panels at a solar farm operated by Yellow River Power in Gonghe County, Qinghai province, China, on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. China, the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter, can’t meet its environmental goals without connecting its abundant sources of renewable energy with its coastal megacities. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- A sparsely populated part of China’s Inner Mongolia region is planning a $25 billion push into clean energy.

Officials from the area, known as Alxa League, held a signing ceremony on Sunday for 32 projects with a total investment of around 169 billion yuan, state-owned Xinhua reported. The centerpiece will be an 86-billion-yuan power base in the Tengger Desert replete with wind turbines, solar panels, solar thermal plants, fossil-fuel generators and pumped hydro energy storage.

Some of the projects will start construction this year and be connected to the grid in 2025, Xinhua said, citing a regional official.

Alxa League has about 230,000 people living in a 266,000 square kilometer area, much of which is desert. About a third of the land is suitable for clean energy development, and regional officials have long-term plans to develop more than 100 gigawatts of renewables, enough to power Australia, the Inner Mongolia Daily reported.

The Alxa League projects fit with President Xi Jinping’s plans to use China’s vast, unpopulated interior to host 450 gigawatts of clean electricity transmitted to urban centers by long-distance power lines. Work started on a separate 80 billion yuan wind, solar and coal project in another part of Inner Mongolia in December.

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By Bloomberg News