Chinese President Xi Jinping last week committed his country to CO2 neutrality by 2060. This week, China took a small but tangible step towards that goal as the country's largest solar power plant in northwestern Qinghai Province was connected to the grid.
The solar park has an output of 2.2 GW. This makes it the second largest in the world and just behind the 2.245 GW strong Bhadla solar park in India. China's largest solar station so far was the Tengger Desert Solar Park with an output of 1.54 GW. For comparison: the largest solar park in the USA has an output of 579 MW.
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The power plant also contains a storage component and an energy storage unit with 202.86 MWh. Construction of the project was completed in September after just four months.
The solar power plant, a collaboration between the Chinese renewable technology company Sungrow and the state-owned utility Huanghe Hydropower Development, is part of the Communist Party's plan to create a "supergrid" that will bring wind, solar and hydropower from the west of the country in the west of the country carries far more dense east.
China is both an asset and a fit in the global fight against climate change. The country is a world leader in solar, wind and water power. Yet it remains heavily dependent on coal. In 2020 alone, according to the Global Energy Monitor, the country's energy industry proposed a value of 40 GW for new coal-fired power plants, which roughly corresponds to the coal power of South Africa.
Speaking to a United Nations committee on September 24, President Jinping said China would achieve carbon neutrality - meaning it would not produce more carbon dioxide than it intercepts - by 2060. China had previously committed to an emissions peak by 2030, but did not set a target for neutrality.
According to the Paris Agreement, with which the global temperature is to be kept 1.5 degrees above 1880, most countries strive for neutrality by 2050.
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