Ground-breaking High-latitude Solar Thermal Plant Goes Online in Jilin, Northeast China

According to China Daily News, a 100MW concentrated solar power facility under CGN Jixi Base was commissioned for power generation in Da’an City, Jilin Province on 29 June, marking a major leap forward in China’s deployment of solar thermal technology within frigid high-latitude zones.

The plant sits at 45.36 degrees north latitude, a region subject to harsh cold climatic conditions, with a rated installed capacity of 100MW and an eight-hour thermal storage cycle that enables secure, continuous power output round the clock. 

Its mirror field holds 19,667 high-precision heliostats covering a total area of roughly 590,000 square metres, each unit programmed to track solar trajectories in real time and reflect sunlight precisely onto a receiver mounted on a 210-metre central tower. 

Light energy is converted into high-temperature heat reaching 565 degrees Celsius within the receiver, before being retained in an integrated molten salt storage system. 

Thermal loss within the storage tanks outperforms baseline design parameters, meaning stored heat can be deployed for power generation on the same day, or reserved for production on subsequent days as weather conditions demand.

Classed among the country’s first batch of integrated wind, solar, thermal and storage demonstration projects built across desert, Gobi and barren grassland zones, the solar thermal station is fitted with a 40MW molten salt electric heater. 

The hardware facilitates seamless coordination with two adjacent renewable assets already operational at the base: a 260MW wind farm and a 130MW photovoltaic array. Surplus power generated by wind and solar installations can be converted and locked away as thermal energy, lifting the overall efficiency of local energy utilisation.

The construction site faces a host of severe engineering constraints, with minimum recorded temperatures falling to minus 37.3 degrees Celsius and peak wind forces hitting force nine. Developers also navigated saline-alkali ground, elevated groundwater levels and heavy cohesive soil throughout the build phase. Systematic technical research and development has delivered a standardised engineering solution suitable for replication at solar thermal sites located north of 45 degrees latitude, where cold climates and problematic ground geology prevail.

Once operating at full capacity, the plant is projected to generate 180 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. Operational metrics indicate annual savings of approximately 54,000 tonnes of standard coal, alongside carbon dioxide emissions cuts of 139,000 tonnes.

The standardised technical framework refined for this high-latitude facility will be rolled out to support planning and construction of equivalent solar thermal projects across cold northern regions in the coming years. Combined wind, solar, thermal and storage setups will be prioritised for new energy bases in north-eastern China to smooth out output volatility from intermittent wind and photovoltaic power assets.