The National Energy Administration recently published the List of Major Technological Equipment in the Energy Sector (Fourth Batch), and the Large-scale Photovoltaic Medium-voltage DC Power Generation System for Desert and Gobi Base has been successfully included.

The desert and Gobi regions boast abundant wind and solar energy resources, making them ideal for large-scale centralized development. However, challenges such as high uncertainty in power supply, high thermal power construction costs, a low proportion of synchronous units, and weak local grids hinder efficient energy utilization. The existing AC collection method faces issues like voltage instability, transient overvoltage, and wide-frequency oscillation. Moreover, integrating numerous synchronous support devices, such as thermal power units, phase modifiers, and grid-forming energy storage, is costly and fails to fundamentally resolve the synchronous stability issues inherent in AC collection.

Photovoltaic medium-voltage DC power generation eliminates frequency and phase synchronization concerns, addressing AC power angle stability at its core. Additionally, the all-DC transmission approach, combining DC collection and DC transmission, reduces cable usage and power conversion stages, significantly improving transmission efficiency and lowering equipment manufacturing costs when scaled up. This makes it a promising solution for the efficient power delivery of future large-scale renewable energy bases.

To advance this cutting-edge technology, Tsinghua University collaborated with Huadian Xinjiang Power Generation Co., Ltd., State Grid Qinghai Electric Power, Qinghai Zhonglvdian Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd., Guodian Nanjing Automation Co., Ltd., Xinjiang Huadian Tianshan Power Generation Co., Ltd., Beijing Power Equipment Group Co., Ltd., TBEA Xinjiang New Energy Co., Ltd., and the Northwest Electric Power Design Institute of China Power Engineering Consulting Group to form a research team. Together, they achieved breakthroughs in hundred-megawatt-level photovoltaic medium-voltage DC power generation, pioneering the world’s first hundred-kilovolt, hundred-megawatt cluster photovoltaic DC transformer and ultra-high-efficiency, large-capacity photovoltaic inverters.

The project will leverage the 6,100 MW new energy base at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang Huadian and the Guolu Photovoltaic Base in Golmud City, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai. It will establish the world’s first multi-level DC power system demonstration project for large desert and Gobi bases, as well as the world's largest-capacity new energy DC collection demonstration project—setting a benchmark for the efficient and cost-effective transmission of wind and solar energy from these regions.

Screenshot of the inclusion in the "List of Major Technological Equipment in the Energy Sector (Fourth Batch)"