New Great Wall set to generate green benefits

Ordos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region is advancing an ambitious initiative known as the Solar Great Wall, aiming to combine the development of renewable energy with efforts to combat desertification, local authorities say.

- HOU LIQIANG and YUAN HUI

This gargantuan wall, 400 kilometers long and an average of 5 km wide, not only promises to supply sustainable electricity to Beijing and its environs, but also stands to make a substantial contribution to the preservation of the Yellow River.

The project, launched this year and that will have total installed capacity of 100 million kilowatts, is expected to generate about 180 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year by 2030 when it is completed, the Ordos energy administration said.

For comparison, Beijing used 135.8 billion kWh of electricity last year.

The project, on the south bank of the Yellow River and the northern edge of the seventhlargest desert in China, the Kubuqi, will also help prevent soil erosion and thus reduce sediment entering the Yellow River. Overall, it will help treat almost 27 million hectares of desert, the administration said.