https://j.people.com.cn/n3/2026/0618/c95952-20468776.html

Construction began on the 350-megawatt (MW) solar thermal power demonstration project at the Wutumeiren Solar PV and Solar Thermal Power Park in Golmud City, Qinghai Province.

As the solar thermal power plant with the world’s largest single-unit thermal energy storage capacity and collector mirror area, the project adopts a hybrid technical approach combining molten salt tower and parabolic trough technologies. It marks the large-scale practical application of CGN’s proprietary 8.6-meter aperture molten salt trough collectors—the largest of their kind in the world—and is expected to provide a replicable and scalable model for the large-scale development of China’s solar thermal power industry.

The project features a total collector mirror aperture area of ​​3.7 million square meters, comprising three tower-type collector arrays (totaling 1.1 million square meters) and one trough-type collector array (400,000 square meters). The trough-type collector technology enables stable operation with an inlet temperature of 290°C and an outlet temperature of 550°C, achieving a thermal storage temperature differential of 260°C—2.6 times that of conventional heat-transfer oil systems. Furthermore, all core components of the facility were developed by CGN in collaboration with leading domestic supply chain enterprises, achieving 100% independent control over core technologies.

Photo: Artist’s impression of the completed CGN Golmud 350MW solar thermal power demonstration project. Image courtesy of CGN.