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The Great Solar Wall: China doubles down on its ambitious effort to tame deserts
Desert regions are being transformed into clean energy hubs that also halt deserts and create habitats for wildlife
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Following in the footprints of its ambitious Great Green Wall, China is leaning into a solar-powered pivot as part of its decades-long effort to tackle desertification in the arid north.
The expanding Great Solar Wall initiative, centred in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, could help to power China’s economic hubs as the country accelerates its transition away from fossil fuels.
The idea is to transform the desert into solar power hubs to generate clean energy while at the same time halting desertification and creating habitats that will allow plants and wildlife to thrive.
Solar is poised to overtake coal as China’s largest source of installed power capacity by the end of the year, with much of it under construction in its western and northern regions, including Inner Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, with their abundant sunshine and land.
In 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a plan to build large-scale wind and solar projects in the arid regions – including the Gobi Desert – to reach an installed capacity of 455 gigawatts by 2030, according to state news agency Xinhua.
This would be equivalent to the capacity of around 20 of China’s Three Gorges – the largest hydroelectric facility in the world – and more than seven times the planned Yarlung Tsangpo mega-dam project.
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