China is building a vast ‘Solar Great Wall’ — and it’s set to power Beijing.
The project, expected to be finished in 2030, will be 400 kilometers (250 miles) long, 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide, and achieve a maximum generating capacity of 100 gigawatts.
The construction is part of the country’s multiyear plan to build a ‘wall’ designed to generate enough energy to power the capital city. So far, Chinese officials say they have installed about 5.4 gigawatts.
It is located in the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia, a featureless sandy region that once had a reputation for being a “sea of death.”
NASA Earth Observatory said: “More recently, its dune fields have become a sea of photovoltaic possibility, transformed by a surge of newly installed solar panels.”
The Kubuqi’s sunny weather, flat terrain, and proximity to industrial centers make it a desirable location for solar power generation. Panels are being installed in a long, narrow band of dunes just south of the Yellow River between the cities of Baotou and Bayannur.
The OLI (Operational Land Imager) and OLI-2 on NASA’s Landsat 8 and 9 satellites captured a pair of images showing the expanding footprint of solar farms between December 2017 and December 2024.
The solar farm that resembles a galloping horse — Junma Solar Power Station — was completed in 2019, setting a Guinness world record for the largest image made of solar panels.
It generates approximately 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, enough to meet the yearly electricity needs of 300,000 to 400,000 people. Junma means “fine horse” in Mandarin.
In addition to generating power, planners hope that the installation will have other benefits. They think it may help curb desertification by preventing the movement of dunes and slowing winds.
Also, the elevated panels create shade that slows evaporation and may make it easier to grow pasture grasses and other crops beneath them.
Analysis of Landsat data indicates that solar projects have contributed to the greening of deserts in other parts of China in recent years.
As of June 2024, China led the world in operating solar farm capacity with 386,875 megawatts, representing about 51 percent of the global total, according to Global Energy Monitor’s Global Solar Power Tracker.
The United States ranks second with 79,364 megawatts (11 percent), followed by India with 53,114 megawatts (7 percent).
China’s solar growth has been particularly rapid during the past decade. Between 2017 and 2023, the country’s operational solar capacity surged by an average of 39,994 megawatts per year.
The solar capacity of the United States expanded by an average of 8,137 megawatts over the same period.
