NW China's Ningxia launches major solar project on subsidence land

A 4-gigawatt photovoltaic project built on coal-mining subsidence areas in Lingwu, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, began operations on Saturday, ready to channel green electricity to the country's eastern economic hubs.

It marks the completion of Ningxia's major coal-mining subsidence area photovoltaic project, which comprises the 4-gigawatt Lingwu complex and a 2-gigawatt complex in Ningdong, and spans a total area of 12,000 hectares.

The 6-gigawatt project is expected to transmit about 10.8 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually via an ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission line that connects Ningxia with east China's Zhejiang Province, channeling green power from the country's west to economic hubs in the east.

With the launch of full operations, the project can generate enough electricity annually to meet the needs of approximately 7.2 million households and will save about 3.24 million tonnes of standard coal each year, delivering significant economic, social and environmental benefits.

The project utilizes coal reserve areas, subsidence zones and barren hillsides. It integrates solar panel power generation, sand control and under-panel plantation and grazing, forging a new path for green development in ecologically fragile regions.

A coal-mining subsidence area is an area where the ground subsides and collapses after its underground coal resources are drained. Efforts have been made to transform such areas into new energy hubs in recent years.