China’s first gigawatt-scale solar-plus-concentrated solar power plant goes live in Gonghe, Qinghai

According to China Power Construction Corporation, the 1,000 MW Gonghe photovoltaic-concentrated solar power (CSP) project in Qinghai — the first of its scale in China — has been connected to the grid. The group invested in, built and now operates the facility.

Situated in Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the 1,000 MW site pairs a 900 MW solar photovoltaic farm with a 100 MW molten-salt tower CSP plant. The CSP section is built around a 219-metre receiver tower served by 10,310 pentagonal heliostats covering some 500,000 square metres of reflective area; the PV section uses 1,897,980 modules.

Molten-salt thermal storage allows surplus daytime solar output to be held as heat and released to drive generation through the night and on overcast days, giving the plant continuous dispatchable output rather than an intermittent PV-only profile. The project is designed to absorb peak-period surplus and strengthen local grid peak-shaving and renewable-energy absorption capacity.

Once fully operational, the plant is expected to deliver 2.2 billion kWh of grid electricity annually, saving roughly 690,000 tonnes of standard coal and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by around 2.07 million tonnes each year. The PV arrays are mounted on raised supports, leaving the native rangeland beneath intact so that grazing can continue under the panels alongside power generation.