Yicai) June 30 -- China General Nuclear Power Group has begun commercial operations at a 100 megawatt concentrated solar power plant in Da'an, Jilin province. It is the first facility of its kind in northeastern China and the country's most northern CSP station.

The CGN Jixi Base CSP project has a single molten-salt tower and single heliostat field, the Shenzhen-based nuclear power giant announced yesterday. A receiver mounted atop the 210-meter tower captures solar energy reflected by 19,667 high-precision reflective mirrors and converts it into thermal energy, which is then used to produce ultra-high-pressure steam that drives a turbine, CGN said.

Equipped with molten salt storage tanks for surplus heat, the plant can generate electricity safely and reliably around the clock, even after sunset, CGN said.

The plant is expected to generate 180 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, cutting standard coal consumption by about 54,000 tons and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by around 139,000 tons a year, said Jiang Tonghai, chairman of CGN Jilin New Energy Investment. The electricity generated will be transmitted over 1,000 kilometers through ultra-high voltage power transmission lines to Shandong province, which energy demand is high, Jiang noted.

The project is also one of China's first demonstration projects integrating wind power, photovoltaic power, CSP, and energy storage in desert and arid regions, CGN said. The plant is fitted with a 40 MW molten salt electric heater, enabling coordinated operation with the company's neighboring 260 MW wind power and 130 MW PV projects.

When power output from the wind and PV facilities exceeds demand, the excess electricity is converted into thermal energy and stored in the CSP plant's molten salt tanks, improving overall utilization of the renewable energy, CGN pointed out.

Unlike wind and PV power generation, which depend on weather conditions, CSP incorporates long-duration thermal energy storage that can supply stable base-load power and also release power flexibly during periods of peak demand. That makes the technology one of the more promising renewable alternatives to conventional fossil fuel-fired generation.

Built on saline-alkali grassland in a region abundant in wind and solar resources, the CSP plant in Da'an is located at 45.36 degrees north latitude in one of China's coldest climate zones.

"The project site faces extremely harsh natural conditions, including a minimum temperature of minus 37.3 degrees Celsius and a maximum wind force of Grade 9," said Zhao Xiong, the person in charge of the CGN Jixi CSP project company. “Construction also hit multiple engineering challenges, including saline-alkali soil, high groundwater levels, and heavy clay ground.”

During construction, CGN developed a set of standardized, replicable building solutions applicable to cold regions and areas with difficult geological conditions, Zhao noted.

China plans to build a number of CSP plants in solar-resource-rich regions, including Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gansu province, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Qinghai province, and Xizang Autonomous Region, with the goal of raising the country's total installed CSP capacity to 15 gigawatts by 2030.

China added 940 MW of new CSP installed capacity last year, lifting the total to 1.8 GW, according to the National Energy Administration. Annual power production from CSP increased by 32 percent to 1.6 billion KW-hours last year from 2024.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev