State-owned electric utility Huanghe Hydropower Development is building a 202.8 MW/MWh solar-plus-storage plant in a desert in China’s northwestern province of Qinghai.
The facility will be connected to an ultra-high voltage power line the State Grid Corp of China is building to connect the far northwest of the country to more densely populated eastern provinces. The RMB22.6 billion ($3.18 billion) power line will include construction of two converter stations with 8 GW of transmission capacity and the line will extend 1,587km across Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi and Henan provinces.
The solar-plus-storage project is part of the 3,182 MW solar scheme Huanghe Hydropower announced in December, according to Chinese inverter maker Sungrow, which is providing its 1500 V, SG250HX string inverters as well as storage solutions for the facility.
The solar-plus-storage plant will be the first phase of a 16 GW renewable energy hub which is set to include 10 GW of solar generation capacity.
Sungrow told pv magazine the solar-plus-storage facility is being equipped with a sub-array energy management function able to ensure smooth power output while improving prediction accuracy for solar power generation.
“The customized, AC-coupled, low-voltage design can guarantee cost-savings for the customer,” Sungrow said in a statement. “Furthermore, the flexibly-built microgrid system with Sungrow PV and energy storage system is able to supply electricity in the early construction period and slash the construction time.”