The first country to come to mind when one thinks of renewable energies is none other than China. The Chinese have established themselves as global leaders in the renewable sector, especially when it comes to solar and wind power. The country has been ahead of other nations in both installations and productions for quite some time, but that doesn’t mean they are done. China has built the world’s largest bunker ever to lock away the future of the Earth.
China built the world’s largest bunker ever
China, from a solar energy point of view, has completed a variety of ambitious projects in the past and has installed over 200 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity over the last 10 years. In 2016, those ambitions became reignited, as developers were urged to initiate the construction of concentrated solar power (CSP) projects after the Chinese government announced a “short list” of demonstration projects it would fund.
One of the projects on this so-called short list was the Delingha plant in Qinghai Province. The plant would comprise the construction of a CSP facility that would be constructed across 800 acres. The company in charge of the Delingha plant development was Zhejiang Supcon Solar Technology Co., which was founded in 2010. Supcon Solar faced a challenging timeframe, but passed the test of time with flying colors.
Construction officially kicked off in March 2017, the plant was integrated to the grid on December 30, 2018, and it officially became fully operational on April 17, 2019. That is a lot to accomplish in two years!
Combining solar with thermal to create something powerful
As far as ambitious projects go, this project did not hold back. Supcon Solar installed 27,135 sets of 20-square-meter heliostats around a 200-m-tall receiver. A heliostat is a mirror-like device that tracks sunlight and reflects it to a target. In addition to the system is a 7-hour molten salt storage system with 0,093 tons of molten (liquid) salt. The company also engineered the thermal storage and exchange system, which comprises:
- Hot and cold salt tanks
- A heat exchanger
- Tubes
- Instruments
- Electric tracing
- A heat preserver
- Other auxiliary systems
“The salt tank can store high-temperature molten salt to exchange [heat] with water through heat exchanger to produce superheated steam for high-quality power generation.” – Supcon Solar
The entire molten salt tower CSP plant has an installed capacity of 50MW. The plant’s steam parameters of 13.2 megapascals at temperatures of 540°C result in an annual power output of 146 GWh. That’s massive compared to this Chinese megaproject. According to Supcon Solar, the output can power 80,000 households.
So much more than just power
The Delingha Plant is about more than just power. According to Supcon Solar, the plant annually saves the equivalent of 46,000 tons of standard coal and also lowers the 121,000 tons of carbon emissions annually. Per the China Solar Thermal Alliance, the heliostats are “intelligent” as their design is weather resistant, sports an automatic calibration system, and self-diagnoses.
What’s more, the plant uses six fully automatic cleaning cars, which also operate in night-cleaning mode. These cars clean the entire mirror field twice a day, something that would usually take almost one week. Besides increased efficiency, these cars also decrease labor costs by 1.2 million RMB ($173,000) annually, as per Supcon Solar. The company also utilizes a “digital twin–like” platform and other software applications to simulate and predict the plant’s operations and to track maintenance needs and performance.
As the saying goes, there is no rest for the wicked. Supcon Solar is continuously working on improving the plant and considers adding AI technology to decrease weather risks, especially cloud coverage, and to further improve performance. China is breaking ground in the renewable energy sector, and it seems they aren’t stopping soon.
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