'Solar Great Wall' could power Beijing by 2030

Ordos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region is advancing an ambitious initiative known as the "Solar Great Wall", aiming to combine the development of renewable energy with efforts to combat desertification, according to local authorities.

This gargantuan project, spanning 400 kilometers in length with an average width of 5 km, not only promises to supply sustainable electricity to Beijing and its surrounding area, but also stands to make a substantial contribution to the preservation of the Yellow River, a mother river of the Chinese nation.

With a total installed capacity of 100 million kilowatts, the project launched earlier this year is expected to generate roughly 180 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year by 2030 when it is completed, the Ordos energy administration said.

For reference as to how much energy that actually is, last year Beijing consumed 135.8 billion kWh of electricity.

Located on the south bank of the Yellow River and the northern edge of the Kubuqi Desert, the seventh-largest desert in China, the project will also help prevent soil erosion and thus reduce sediment entering the Yellow River. Overall, it will help treat almost 27 million hectares of desert, the administration added.