A photovoltaic power station in Dalad Banner, Ordos of North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Photo: IC

Construction of the world's largest wind power and photovoltaic base project developed and built in the desert and Gobi areas started in Ordos, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Wednesday, which also marks the first 10-million-kilowatt new-energy base project that began construction in China.  

Located in the Kubuqi Desert-China's 7th largest desert, the project attracted more than 80 billion yuan ($11.47 billion) of investment, with a total installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts, including 8 million kilowatts of photovoltaic power, 4 million kilowatts of wind power and other energy resources, China Media Group reported on Wednesday.   

The project will deliver about 40 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region each year after its completion, equivalent to one tenth of the annual electricity consumption of the entire Hebei Province, said Zhang Long, general manager of China Three Gorges Renewables Group Co.  

Zhang noted that the clean energy accounts for more than 50 percent of the energy supply, which will save about 6 million tons of standard coal and reduce about 16 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. 

Zhang added that the base project will continuously improve the local ecological environment, create more job opportunities, and boost economic development, while effectively driving the development of new industries such as photovoltaic, energy storage and digitalization in clusters. 

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, issued a strategic plan including 82 measures on December 15 to boost the domestic demand. 

The plan vowed to accelerate the construction of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases focused on desert and Gobi areas as an effort to further strengthen the construction of the nation's energy infrastructure.  

China's largest desert PV station -- the Junma Solar Power Station, also located in the Kubuqi Desert and composed of more than 196,000 photovoltaic panels, has generated more than 2.312 billion kWh of green electricity, which is equivalent to saving 760,000 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.85 million tons as of early September.