China Opens World’s Largest Solar Farm with 6.09 Billion kWh Annual Capacity.

The plant has a total capacity of 6.09 billion kWh, enough to power a small country for an entire year.

China has recently connected what it believes to be the world’s largest solar power plant to the grid in northwestern Xinjiang. Covering an area of 200,000 acres, the plant is reported to have an annual output of 6.09 billion kWh. Located in the deserts near the region’s capital, Ürümqi, the site went online on June 3 and is operated by the Chinese state-owned Power Construction Corporation, according to Reuters.

To put the plant’s massive output into perspective, it can provide enough power for the entire population of Papua New Guinea or Luxembourg for an entire year. This impressive achievement has even garnered praise from Elon Musk.

Xinjiang, officially known as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, is an ideal location for such a massive renewable energy project due to its sparse population and abundance of solar and wind resources. The region’s renewable energy bases primarily transmit power over long distances to China’s densely populated eastern seaboard.

This new 5GW solar power plant is situated in Xinjiang, which spans over 620,000 square miles (397 million acres) and has a population of about 25 million. The region shares borders with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and India. Ürümqi, with a census population of 4 million in 2020, is the second-largest city in China’s northwestern interior after Xi’an and the largest city in Central Asia in terms of population. Since the 1990s, Ürümqi has experienced significant economic growth, serving as a regional transport hub and a cultural, political and commercial centre.

The new power plant is the latest development in the region, further solidifying China’s growing prowess in solar power generation. Data from China’s National Energy Administration revealed a 55.2% increase in the country’s solar electricity generation capacity in 2023, highlighting the construction of over 216 gigawatts (GW) of solar power during the year.
According to the Global Energy Monitor’s solar power tracker, the two largest operational solar facilities were previously located in western China: Longyuan Power Group’s Ningxia Tenggeli desert solar project and China Lüfa Qinghai New Energy Project.