Construction has begun on the world’s largest solar tower, a 200 MW project in western Haixi, China. Undertaken by Power China Northwest, the Delingha solar hybrid tower was invested by CGN New Energy and will be constructed in two phases. Each phase consists of 800 MW of PV and 200MW CSP. At the moment, it’s the CSP part of the first phase of the project that started the construction. It is also the world’s largest solar tower CSP project in single-unit capacity under construction.
How the plant will work
The project adopts the hybrid form of photovoltaic and molten salt solar thermal power generation. It then uses the heat from solar field and the residual electricity of curtailment wind and solar power in the area to heat the molten salt in the thermal energy storage tank. Next, it generates high-temperature steam through the salt-water heat exchanger to drive the steam turbine generator to generate electricity.
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The world’s largest solar tower Capacity
The Delingha Solar Hybrid project has a total capacity of 2000MW. It will spread across a planned area of about 53,000 mu (3529.8 million square meters). The total design annual utilization hours of this 200MW CSP plant is [projected to be] 1,319 hours, [for] an annual power generation of 263.88 million kWh. After the whole project is completed and put into operation, the annual on-grid electricity could reach 3.65 billion kWh. Mr. Ke Xijun, the head of the project said.
The project will be built into the first new energy hybrid demonstration project in the western part of the Haixi region with a molten salt CSP plant as the peak shaving power supply, helping the construction of a national clean energy industry highland in Qinghai Province and contributing to the achievement of the carbon neutral goal.
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Cosin Solar won the contract for Solar Field and MSR Systems equipment supply for the Delingha Solar. They will mainly be responsible for the engineering, equipment supply, system integrations, related commissioning and operation guidance services of the solar field and MSR system.
The Jinta Zhonguang CSP project
Cosin solar is also building the 100 MW Jinta Zhonguang CSP project. The project will have an expected generation of 209 GWh/year and will be constructed over an area of 3.62 km². Construction began in 2022 and is expected to be completed later this year. The Jinta Zhongguang project was originally one of three Three Gorges Renewables’ demonstration projects in 2016. However, Three Gorges failed to start this one in time, and Cosin took it over and was given more time to complete it. In December last year, the installation of the 25594th heliostats was successfully completed in the Jinta ZhongGuang Solar “CSP + PV” hybrid pilot project 100MW CSP project. This marked the completion of the assembly and installation of all the heliostats in the project.
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