China has announced that it has connected the world’s largest solar power plant to the grid in Xinjiang. This massive solar power plant spans 200,000 acres and is capable of producing 6.09 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity each year. This amount of electricity is enough to power a country like Papua New Guinea or Luxembourg for an entire year.
The solar power plant is operated by the state-owned Power Construction Corporation and officially started generating power on June 3. Elon Musk, the well-known entrepreneur, has expressed his admiration for this impressive feat.
China has set ambitious goals to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and to become carbon neutral by 2060. As part of these efforts, the country aims to build a total of 1,200 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2030.
This new solar power plant in Xinjiang is a significant step toward achieving these goals.