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A solar power project in the Gobi Desert has moved the needle on the size and scope of global photovoltaic installations, aided by innovation in equipment and construction.
The numbers tell much of the story of the Midong solar farm. The installation, located in Urumqi in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, in the Gobi Desert of China, has 3.5 GW of generation capacity, and at present is the largest solar power installation worldwide.
State-owned China Green Development Group (CGDG) is behind the project. The company said a subsidiary, China Green Electricity Investment of Tianjin, began operating the $2.13 billion facility in June 2024. The solar farm was built by China Construction Eighth Engineering Division Corp. and Power Construction Corp. of China. Midong features 5.26 million 650-W monocrystalline bifacial double-glass photovoltaic (PV) panels. The facility’s infrastructure includes more than 1.23 million supporting piles, five 220-kV booster stations, and more than 208 kilometers (129 miles) of transmission lines, according to CGDG.
But those numbers provide only some of the reasons Midong is important to the global solar power industry. Aidan Charron, associate global director of EARTHDAY.ORG, the environmental group whose founders created and organized the first Earth Day in 1970, said Midong “is a big deal. It’s the largest single-unit solar power station in the world, and covers a staggering 200,000 acres [312 square miles] of desert. It generates enough electricity every year to power three million homes. That’s enough energy to power Houston or Chicago or Toronto. From one solar farm.”
Even in China, a country whose renewable energy generation capacity easily outpaces the rest of the world, Midong stands out. Charron told POWER, “[Midong’s] energy generation scale rivals the output of one average nuclear plant, demonstrating the reality of solar energy in providing serious baseload power in optimal conditions. Anyone who claims solar cannot power the world is clearly either naive or just a Luddite [someone opposed to technology] because this solar project is a game-changer in the renewable energy world. We should be watching and learning.”
Consider what China is doing with regard to renewable energy. The Asia Society Policy Institute recently reported that the country installed 93 GW of solar generation capacity in May of this year alone. The group’s analysis noted that’s equivalent to putting up 100 solar panels every second. It also added 26 GW of wind power capacity in May, which the group called the equivalent of about 5,300 turbines. In the first five months of this year, China added 198 GW of solar power capacity, and 46 GW of wind energy.
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1. A worker is shown on the massive transmission line that was built in conjunction with the Midong solar farm. Courtesy: China Green Development Group |
Midong also showcases China’s commitment to building power transmission infrastructure (Figure 1). Said Charron, “It took 208 kilometers of transmission lines to connect the solar farm to the Chinese national grid and… this is a super impressive feat of engineering. It underscores China’s position as being at the forefront of clean energy production. This facility proves how large-scale solar projects can be a cornerstone for national energy security, as well as smart climate goals, and this one farm brings China closer to its target of producing 1,200 GW of renewable energy by 2030, and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.”
Midong, by the numbers and because of its importance to the global solar industry, is a worthy recipient of a POWER Top Plant Award in the renewable energy category.
Moving Power from West to East
Midong reportedly required an investment of 15.45 billion Chinese yuan (about $2.15 billion). It’s expected to produce about 6.09 TWh of electricity annually. That power is just part of the generation in Xinjiang, electricity that is transmitted across long distances through China’s “West-to-East Power Transmission Project.” That initiative is designed to deliver power from resource-rich western regions of the country to the densely populated and economically developed eastern coastal areas of China.
“The Midong solar facility… represents a seminal breakthrough in utility-scale renewable infrastructure,” said Irina Tsukerman, president of Scarab Rising, an advisory company. “It is the largest photovoltaic complex ever constructed and signals a transformation not only in engineering ambition, but also in strategic coordination, institutional design, and policy maturity. Its emergence reflects the evolution of solar power from a fragmented and subsidy-dependent sector into a coherent, reliable, and bankable component of national energy architecture.”
Tsukerman, who advises businesses on geopolitical issues, told POWER, “Midong’s construction in the arid deserts of Xinjiang was not a simple case of land availability. It was a deliberate act of ecological and spatial engineering. The site’s topography, solar irradiance levels, and minimal vegetation were mapped using satellite-based GIS [geographic information system] modeling and LiDAR [light detection and ranging] surveys. Panel orientation was calculated with precision to balance optimal exposure, wind resilience, and soiling risk.
“Modules employed were monocrystalline PERC [passivated emitter and rear contact] cells, including bifacial configurations capable of capturing direct and reflected sunlight in high-albedo conditions. Automated cleaning systems using dry electrostatic technology were deployed to combat dust accumulation,” said Tsukerman. “This reduced water consumption and preserved panel efficiency in a region with chronic particulate density and negligible rainfall.”
The project reportedly employed more than 20,000 workers during construction. The industry experts who spoke with POWER said CGDG implemented several innovative solutions to complete the project. Some of the key technological advancements mentioned included the development of a drone-based PV installation technique optimized for desert environments, along with a smart inspection system for large-scale renewable energy stations. The experts said the innovations supported the quality and efficiency of construction, and added that Midong could serve as a model for future large-scale projects in challenging environments.
“Again, this is way ahead of the U.S., because unlike here, China’s made a real commitment to renewable energy generation that is driving an exploding industry,” said Charron. “[China is] making energy independence a reality,” with its support for renewables “lowering energy prices for business and residential, and of course it is creating millions of new, long-term jobs. China should be applauded.”
Teymour Bourial, a consultant for dozens of energy projects with both Chinese and Western firms, told POWER that some of the strategies behind Midong will likely benefit other developers of large-scale renewable energy installations. “This is an excellent advertisement for China’s energy transition industry—there’s the scale, of course, but there’s also the extensive reported use of innovative technologies throughout the project lifecycle [such as robotic maintenance and drone-based asset monitoring],” said Bourial, founding partner at ExoPeak, a consultancy focused on sustainability. “Similar ultra-large-scale initiatives are unlikely to be widely replicated with success—there are too few situations where the right conditions are met. I’d go as far as saying that some of the giga-projects announced in Australia, India, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere could turn into vaporware a few years from now.
“Conversely, the operational best practices observed in Midong are set to spread worldwide,” said Bourial. “Several firms are already surfing on Midong’s momentum to fuel their international expansion.” Bourial mentioned Leapting’s PV cleaning robots that were recently introduced in India. Bourial added, “Midong and other large-scale projects also help Chinese companies move up the value chain in energy projects. I’m increasingly seeing Chinese companies on EPC [engineering, procurement, and construction] and consulting-type bids in Europe and in the U.S., using involvement on large-scale work to signal competence for smaller, simpler projects.”
CGDG’s Renewables Footprint
CGDG has said its renewable energy projects operate in a dozen Chinese provinces, and include 43 power plants. Those facilities include solar power generation, onshore wind and offshore wind, and energy storage.
The company, established in December 2020, is an investment group operated under the central Chinese government. In a statement, the company said its focus is on development of clean energy, and “is committed to developing into a world-class green industry investment group. Through large-scale cultural tourism projects and green energy development projects, [CGDG] carries out industrial projects for targeted poverty reduction, such as modern agriculture and poverty reduction through photovoltaic industry to help consolidate the effective connection between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. We adhere to the philosophy of ‘people-oriented, ecology as the root, and culture as the soul.’ ”
Jason Altshuler, owner of My Electric Home, a provider of innovative electrical solutions, said Midong “is interesting because it shows how the main problems of large solar farms can be solved simultaneously with generation scaling. One of these problems is managing variable generation at high power density. The project’s engineers used a distributed inverter architecture with localized control, which helps smooth out power fluctuations before the energy enters the grid. This reduces the load on central control systems and lowers the need for expensive energy storage. Anyone planning large solar projects should consider this approach because it increases system stability and cuts overall balancing costs.”
Altshuler noted, “Midong also features anti-glare and dust-repellent coatings, which significantly reduce performance loss due to dirt and dust. Because northwest China has an arid climate, this is incredibly important since dust can quickly reduce energy output. In terms of integration into the power grid, Midong shows that large solar farms can be a reliable and scalable part of the energy balance with the right architecture and management. This is important for markets with variable generation and unstable grids because the project has proven that scale does not require compromises in reliability and control.
“Those building large projects need to be careful when choosing the generation management system and how they maintain the modules because this is where hidden complexities often arise,” said Altshuler. “Overall, Midong is an example of mature engineering and sets a high bar for the global industry.”
—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.
