China tames ‘sea of death’ with high-voltage renewable energy power loop
Final phase of 15-year megaproject encircling Tarim Basin will soon be a major part of the regional electricity grid
Chinese construction crews have completed encircling the Tarim Basin – one of the most forbidding places on Earth – with an extra-high voltage “energy ring”.
The project, which took 15 years to build, transforms the vast inland basin – home to China’s largest desert – into a massive new-energy transmission hub.
The infrastructure includes nearly 10,000 transmission towers along with nine substations that will collect wind, solar, thermal and hydropower, transforming the voltage before sending the electricity back out for consumption, according to state news agency Xinhua.
The extended power grid covers an area of 1.06 million sq km (409,268 square miles) and five prefectures in Xinjiang. According to Xinhua, most of the construction was completed along the Taklamakan Desert, which accounts for around 60 per cent of the Tarim Basin’s total area.