To date, no other large-scale regional power grid has seamlessly integrated such a large proportion of renewable energy while maintaining such high year-round utilization rates, scientists say.
It is sparsely populated due to its remoteness from the sea and its inhospitable terrain, characterized by harsh deserts such as the Gobi and Taklamakan.
However, the region is rich in natural resources such as oil, coal, and green energy sources. It is the source of 60 percent of China’s solar energy and one-third of its wind power.
But now, “the northwestern power grid has already realized the early stages of this new type of power system,” Ma Xiaowei and his team from the northwestern branch of the China National Power Grid and Xi’an Jiaotong University write in a paper. . -We reviewed a paper published last month in the Chinese academic journal “Power System and Clean Energy.”
The region’s installed renewable energy capacity has reached 230 GW, half of which is transmitted to the densely populated eastern coastal states via 10 ultra-high-voltage direct current transmission lines.
These transmission lines span thousands of kilometers and nearly cross the width of China, making the northwestern grid “the world’s strongest and largest regional grid,” Ma said. stated in their paper.
ASEAN renewable energy sector boosted by solar power projects in China
ASEAN renewable energy sector boosted by solar power projects in China
But after careful comparisons, Ma’s team found that “China’s northwestern electricity grid outperforms the EU in core renewable energy usage metrics and has reached world-leading levels.”
If every desert on Earth were covered with solar panels and wind turbines, the electricity generated would dwarf existing human needs. However, engineering obstacles made this vision unrealistic for a long time. Transmitting vast amounts of electricity over long distances is a difficult goal, and traditional power grids cannot cope with the wild fluctuations of renewable energy.
Chinese engineers have taken on these challenges and learned some painful lessons. In 2014, a wind turbine caused a power surge that spanned 400 kilometers (248 miles) and severely damaged another wind farm, according to Ma’s paper.
China’s explosive growth in renewable energy in recent years has exacerbated these problems. Due to changes in sunlight and weather conditions, the Northwest power grid can experience fluctuations in power delivery capacity of up to 50 gigawatts per day. This variation is equivalent to the combined output of all nuclear reactors operating in France.
To address this challenge, China has built the world’s most advanced high-voltage long-distance DC transmission lines, effectively reducing power losses during long-distance transmission. Chinese scientists and engineers have also deployed artificial intelligence to predict power generation capacity up to 10 days in advance by analyzing large amounts of sensor data.
“Prediction accuracy is very high when weather conditions are stable,” Ma’s team wrote in their paper.
Coal-fired power plants have served as the main stabilizing force for China’s power grid, but with the rapid growth of solar and wind power in the northwest, they are no longer sufficient. To fill this gap, the Chinese government built hydropower plants upstream of the Yellow River to serve as the backbone of regulation and energy storage.
According to Ma’s team, these reservoirs will not only provide irrigation to arid regions, but also reduce grid regulation costs by about 20 billion yuan (about 280 billion yen), with significant economic and ecological benefits. It is said to be bringing significant profits.
Another core technology lies in realizing complementarity between renewable energies. This requires robust and reliable information sensing and control systems. According to Ma’s team, nearly half of renewable energy generation facilities participate in this responsive mutual aid system.
An AI entrepreneur in Beijing said energy supplies will be crucial in the looming competition for national power between China and the United States. The Biden administration has banned the sale of cutting-edge AI chips to China in an effort to halt China’s AI advances.
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Take a look inside the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor in Japan
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“The advantage of these chips primarily lies in their slightly lower power consumption. However, as China’s power supply increases, Chinese companies are using less advanced chips to achieve similar AI training results. We will be able to do that,” said the entrepreneur, who requested anonymity.
“The increase in electricity bills is insignificant compared to the overall investment in the AI race.”
Before the pandemic, China’s power generation capacity was twice that of the United States. Now it’s nearly three times that amount. While electricity prices in the United States rose 20% from 2021 to 2023 due to inflation, electricity prices in China have remained stable. In some regions rich in renewable energy, Chinese companies are receiving larger discounts than before.
China breaks ground on large-scale project to promote renewable energy storage
China breaks ground on large-scale project to promote renewable energy storage
The Chinese government is moving ahead with plans to build data centers and AI servers in the energy-rich western region, with the aim of boosting the global competitiveness of high-tech giants such as Huawei.
American homes consume nearly 40 percent of the total electricity generated in the country, businesses about 35 percent, and factories about 25 percent. However, in China, the commercial and industrial sectors have a large demand for electricity, accounting for over 80% of the total.