The state-owned Chinese company China Huadian Corp. has fully launched the second stage of the Caipeng solar power plant (SPP) in the Tibet Autonomous Region in northwestern China. The second stage includes 170,000 photovoltaic panels with a total capacity of 100 MW located at an altitude of 5,228 meters.
The first stage of this project, which totaled 50 MW, was completed in December 2023. The new SPP has become the highest-altitude SPP in the world, taking the mantle from the power plant located at an altitude of 4,700 m, built in Tibet by Jetion Solar in 2020.
In many ways, the project represents the convenience of using solar panels to supply energy to remote areas. In Russia, combined solar-diesel generators are used for this purpose: diesel generators supply power in the morning and evening hours, while solar panels generate electricity during the day, sending the excess to accumulators, from which remote villages are supplied at night. In recent years, Rosseti has launched a number of these generators in the Tomsk Region and the Trans-Baikal Territory.
Hydropower also offers solutions for off-grid energy supply. This refers not only to run-of-river and dam HPPs in river basins, but also to power plants for stagnant reservoirs. For instance, VerdErg has created a mini-hydropower plant resembling a Venturi tube: it has an inlet cone with a turbine installed, a narrowed middle in which the water flow accelerates and an expanding diffuser in which it slows down.
Due to the high pressure in the tube, this design makes it possible to generate electricity from a small volume of water, including from ponds, which is especially important for sparsely populated areas.
SOURCE
GLOBAL ENERGY ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
