The highway running through the Taklimakan Desert in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region spans 522 km and is equipped with 86 solar power plants for irrigation and water pumping.
As of June 10, China’s first carbon-neutral highway through the desert, part of the longest solar photovoltaic (PV) project dedicated to irrigation and sand control in the Tarim oil field of the Taklimakan Desert in the northwestern part of the country, has produced over 5 million kW of clean electricity, according to Global News.
China’s largest highway through the Taklimakan Desert. (Photo: CGTN).
The project has installed 86 solar power plants along the desert highway, generating electricity to irrigate over 3,100 hectares of ecological protection forests along the route, providing a complete alternative to diesel-powered irrigation pumps.
“The photovoltaic panels supporting the carbon-neutral highway produce approximately 11,000 kW of electricity each day. A total of 109 wells along the highway use clean electricity for pumping and irrigation,” said Wen Zhang, Deputy General Manager of the Tarim Oilfield Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation.
The total installed capacity of the solar power plants along the desert highway reaches 3,540 kW with an annual production capacity of 3.62 million kWh. Meng Panlei, an engineer at the oil well, stated that they apply a cyclic development model for energy production using photovoltaic panels, planting trees beneath the panels, and fully utilizing water resources to transform the ecological environment within the desert. Estimates suggest this green project will help reduce diesel fuel consumption by about 1,000 tons and decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 3,410 tons annually.
The Tarim Oilfield Company has built four solar power plants with a total installed capacity of 1.3 million kW in the remote areas of the Taklimakan Desert and its outskirts. These plants have cumulatively produced over 700 million kW of clean electricity, ensuring power supply to meet the surging demand in summer and supporting local economic development.
Data from the National Energy Administration indicates that China accounts for over 50% of the 510 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity installed worldwide in 2023.
