(Yicai) June 17 -- China General Nuclear Power, a state-owned atomic and clean energy developer, has kicked off construction at the world's largest concentrated solar power plant in China's northwestern Qinghai province.

The project will have a solar collection area of about 3.7 million square meters, consisting of three solar tower fields of 1.1 million sqm each and a parabolic trough field of 400,000 sqm, and a molten salt thermal energy storage system with a capacity of over 11.7 million kilowatt-hours, Yicai learned from CGN yesterday.

Both the solar collection area and the thermal storage capacity will be the largest in the world.

A CSP plant uses mirrors to reflect a large area of sunlight onto a single tower or receiver filled with molten salt, converting solar radiation into high-temperature heat, which produces steam and drives a turbine, generating thermal energy. After sunset, the accumulated thermal energy can be used to generate electricity through a steam turbine, enabling a continuous power supply 24 hours a day.

Once completed and put into operation, the project is expected to generate an annual electricity output of up to one billion kWh, effectively enhancing the local renewable energy consumption and power supply capacity.

Compared to traditional coal-fired power generation, the project is expected to save 320,000 tons of standard coal consumption a year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 860,000 tons, CGN said.

As China vigorously promotes its dual carbon goals of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, the CSP industry is experiencing rapid growth.

The country's installed capacity of CSP more than doubled to 1.8 million kW last year from 2024, with the annual electricity generation up 32 percent to 1.6 billion kWh, according to data from the National Energy Administration.

China aims to increase its installed capacity of concentrated solar power to about 15 million kW by 2030, reduce electricity generation costs to levels comparable to coal power, and achieve internationally leading technology that is fully independent and controllable, according to a plan jointly released by the NEA and the National Development and Reform Commission last year.

Thanks to the continuous improvement of the industry's supply chain, the construction cost of concentrated solar power in China has halved to CNY15,000 (USD2,220) per kW in the past decade, according to NEA data. The cost of electricity generation has also dropped to around 60 Chinese cents (8 US cents) per kWh, laying a preliminary foundation for scalable development.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione