en.Wedoany.com Reported - On June 29, the CGN Jixi Base 100 MW solar thermal power plant, China's highest-latitude and the first of its kind in the Northeast, commenced power generation in Da'an City, Jilin Province. This marks a major breakthrough in the application of solar thermal power generation technology in high-latitude, severe cold regions, providing a replicable and scalable model for developing similar projects in comparable areas across China.
Located in a severe cold climate zone at 45.36 degrees north latitude, the plant adopts a single-tower, single-mirror-field molten salt tower technology route, with an installed capacity of 100 MW and a thermal storage capacity of up to 8 hours. It is capable of safe, stable, and continuous operation for 24 hours, and the steam turbine generator unit can achieve rapid start-up.
"The natural conditions at the project site are extremely harsh, with minimum temperatures reaching minus 37.3 degrees Celsius and maximum wind speeds up to Force 9. Additionally, the project faces multiple engineering challenges, including saline-alkali geology, high groundwater levels, and heavy clay soil," said Zhao Xiong, head of CGN Jixi Solar Thermal Project Company. Through systematic technological research, CGN has successfully mastered a suite of key technologies, including molten salt anti-freezing, mirror field wind and snow resistance, low-temperature pile foundation construction, and composite waterproofing for large storage tanks, forming a standardized solution replicable in severe cold regions above 45 degrees north latitude with harsh geological conditions.
The plant's mirror field consists of 19,667 high-precision heliostats, covering a total area of approximately 590,000 square meters. These heliostats track the sun's trajectory in real time, precisely reflecting and concentrating sunlight onto a receiver located at a central tower height of 210 meters. The receiver converts the light energy into high-temperature thermal energy at 565 degrees Celsius, which is stored in the supporting molten salt thermal storage system. As the temperature drop in the storage tanks is better than the design value, the stored thermal energy can be used for power generation on the same day or, depending on weather conditions, for generation the next day or even over longer periods.
To strictly control the vertical accuracy of the heat absorption tower, the project team innovatively adopted a construction technique where friction bears the main structural load. The completed 189-meter tower has an overall verticality deviation controlled within 10 millimeters.
Jiang Tonghai, Chairman of CGN (Jilin) New Energy Investment Co., Ltd., stated that after the project is fully operational, it is expected to generate 180 million kWh of electricity annually, equivalent to saving approximately 54,000 tons of standard coal consumption and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 139,000 tons, yielding significant energy-saving and environmental benefits.
As one of the first national demonstration projects for integrated "wind, solar, thermal, and storage" in the Gobi and desert regions, this solar thermal power plant is equipped with a 40 MW molten salt electric heater. It can effectively coordinate with the previously commissioned CGN Jixi 260 MW wind power project and the 130 MW photovoltaic project nearby. When wind and photovoltaic power generation is in surplus, excess electrical energy can be converted into thermal energy and stored, effectively mitigating curtailment of wind and solar power and improving overall energy utilization efficiency.
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