On 5th November, after 14 months of construction, the largest single photovoltaic base project in the coal mining subsidence area in China, with an installed capacity of 3 million kilowatts, Guodian Power Mengxi Blue Sea PV Power Station of the National Energy Group, was connected to the grid and generated electricity in Ertokqian Banner of Inner Mongolia.

With a total investment of about 12 billion RMB, Mengxi Blue Sea PV Power Station is a key supporting project of the national ‘West-East Electricity Transmission, West Development’ Inner Mongolia Erdos Shanghai Temple to Shandong Linyi ±800kV UHV DC Transmission Project. The project is located in the territory of Ertokqian Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, covering an area of about 105,000 mu, an area equivalent to 10,000 standard football fields, and laying more than 5.9 million photovoltaic modules. After the power station is connected to the grid, it is expected that the annual power generation will reach 5.7 billion kilowatt-hours, and the green power will be sent across thousands of miles to be consumed in Shandong, which can satisfy the living power consumption of 2 million residents for one year, and provide a strong green energy guarantee for the economic and social development of the eastern coastal region, with remarkable social, environmental and economic benefits.

During the construction period of the project, Guodian Power puts forward the top-level idea of ‘fire and light bundling, joint delivery, comprehensive demonstration, technology leadership’, and takes ‘highlighting scientific and technological innovation, enhancing the content of science and technology, and making every effort to strive for the National Quality Engineering Gold Medal’ as the goal, and adheres to the top-level design, Planning as a whole. The project construction unit Guodian Power Inner Mongolia comprehensive energy from the survey, design, construction, operation, maintenance of multiple links to achieve ecological priority, industry-driven, multiple benefits, green and low-carbon, safe and stable, the first large-scale application of photovoltaic panels and brackets in the international ‘integrated’ fusion of mounting solutions, through the ‘integrated’ module It is the first large-scale application of the ‘integrated’ fusion installation programme of PV panels and racking in the world, and through the on-site pre-installation of ‘integrated’ modules and construction of ‘integrated’ modules, it realizes the construction of PV arrays with fewer manpower, mechanisation and high efficiency, and improves the construction efficiency by 25%, and forms the distinctive features of ‘five new applications, five demonstrations and eight optimisations’. It has formed the distinctive features of ‘five new applications, five demonstrations and eight optimisations’, which has accumulated valuable experience for the construction of large-scale photovoltaic projects in China's sandy and barren areas.

Inner Mongolia Comprehensive Energy has built the first large-scale PV outdoor demonstration base in the ‘Shagoe Wilderness’ climate zone in China at the project site, verifying the combination of different modules, inverters, stents, etc., and forming more than 30 kinds of demonstration programmes to explore the most suitable effective path for the large-scale development of PV in the ‘Shagoe Wilderness’ region. Explore the most suitable path for large-scale development of photovoltaic in the ‘sandy desert’ area. It is the first large-scale application of new rare earth alloy grounding materials in China, and adopts the mechanical connection method without welding, which eliminates fire hazards and greatly improves the construction speed, and saves 40% of the comprehensive cost; the application of the 2.5 million kilowatts capacity N-type PV modules, which have the highest power in China during the same period of time, can increase the power generation capacity by 2% while decreasing the attenuation of the whole life cycle and has an important demonstration significance for the development of the next-generation crystalline silicon cells; it is the first time in China to apply the N-type PV modules with the highest power during the same period of time. It has important demonstration significance; it is the first large-scale application of H-type square steel pile foundation in China, which does not require pilot holes and welding when piling, and can avoid the risk of prairie fire brought by the operation, and it can effectively achieve the construction of large projects to drive the upgrading of scientific and technological innovations and industrial equipment, and fill the gaps of the PV evidence bases of the National Energy Group and the Inner Mongolia region, which will provide references for the development of the photovoltaic industry and the relevant policy formulation.

At the same time, the power station closely relying on Inner Mongolia's good renewable energy resources and location development advantages, combined with the comprehensive treatment planning of coal mining subsidence areas, to create a ‘PV + ecological’ scenarios of ‘under-board planting, agricultural light complementary, pastoral light complementary, industrial tourism’, in the ground surface In the area with more native vegetation, alfalfa and sardonyx are planted, and in the area with less native vegetation, grass miscanthus, sand cypress and Artemisia seeds with better drought tolerance are planted to provide excellent feed for cattle and sheep and realise a sustainable development model. The sand-resistant plant lemon grass planted under the board can be used in thermal power plants for biomass blending, reducing the proportion of fossil fuels used for power generation, achieving the purpose of carbon reduction and pollution reduction, and developing new quality productivity according to local conditions while promoting ‘agriculture and light complementarity’.