# Gobi & desert wind-solar mega-bases (沙戈荒)

China's biggest clean-energy buildout is a **state program across the northern desert,
Gobi, and barren belts** (Kubuqi / Ulan Buh / Tengger / Badain Jaran anchor deserts, plus
coal-subsidence zones).

## Scale — the plan

- **2030 target: 455 GW** — the single largest planned renewable program anywhere.
  Split: **140 GW self-use**, **315 GW long-distance UHV export**.
- **2025 tranche: 200 GW** — 50 GW self-use / 150 GW export.

## Commissioning, batch by batch

The program is delivered in rolling tranches (batches), each tracked separately:

- **Batch 1:** announced **2021-11** as a list of **50 bases / 97.4 GW** across
  **18 provinces + the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps** (NEA, Pan Huimin 2025-01-23). By **end-2024: 92.0 GW
  built (~95% of plan), 90.8 GW operating/connected** — the honest denominator, ~20% of the
  2030 ceiling banked.
- **14th Five-Year Plan (2021–25) full-period adds:** the desert-base belt put on **>130 GW** of new capacity 2021–25
  (NDRC press-conference series on completing the 14th Five-Year Plan, Li Chuangjun 2025-10-29) — "yesterday's
  wasteland, today's energy oasis".
- **Batch 2/3:** rolling lists, NEA 2025 commits to carrying on from batch-1 lessons;
  concentrated in the Three-North (Northeast/North/Northwest) belt with an **absorption-first / thermal + renewables
  co-delivery** emphasis beyond the pure UHV-export path.

## First UHV-export base — the milestone unit

**The Northern Tianshan Gobi base in Xinjiang (Santanghu, Hami)**, the dedicated power source for the third
Xinjiang power-export corridor (Xinjiang to Chongqing), became the **first desert *export* mega-base** to bring
units on-line:

- **14.2 GW program** — coal 4.0 + wind 7.0 + solar PV 3.0 + concentrated solar 0.2 GW;
  **1.2 GW / 4.8 GWh** electrochemical storage; renewable share **>70%**.
- First units live **2025-06-13** (2 × 1 GW coal units, 168-h full-load trial);
  all-but-CSP commissioning targeted **2025-12**.
- At **36 TWh/yr** via the **Hami–Chongqing ±800 kV UHV DC line**, it covers ~a quarter of Chongqing's
  power supply (2025 demand ~162 TWh).

## Why it matters

These are the transmission corridors of the future grid — the desert power travels thousands
of kilometres via the UHV lines on /transmission. They are also the fastest-growing sink for
storage: desert solar/wind need buffering to hit grid-quality targets. The **315 GW export
tranche is the load the UHV build exists to carry** — see /transmission.

Source: NEA (Pan Huimin press conference 2025-01-23; 2025 progress), NDRC press conference
(Li Chuangjun 2025-10-29), Xinhua (2025-06-13), NDRC/NEA "Plan for the Layout of Large Wind and Solar Bases".
As of 2025-12. Monthly/annual cadence, no intra-month tinkering.