Big speed, big layout, big innovation

Accelerating the development of new energy sources such as wind power and photovoltaics is an important measure to effectively promote carbon reduction and build a beautiful China. Under the circumstance that the "double carbon" goal and route are clear, since 2021, domestic clean energy, especially new energy mainly wind power and photovoltaics, has achieved rapid development.

As a major clean energy province in the country, Qinghai Province, located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, has clearly defined the development positioning of "National Clean Energy Industry Highland", showing the characteristics of great acceleration, large layout and great innovation in the development of the wind and solar new energy industry, and has also become a window to observe the development of China's new energy industry.

Big SpeedUp: From "Yellow Wasteland" to "Blue Ocean"

After winter, the lowest temperatures in Golmud City, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, drop to minus 15 degrees Celsius. In the vast Gobi Desert of Utu Meiren Photovoltaic Thermal Park, the wind is gusting, but it cannot blow away the busy scene of traffic and goods here.

Recently, a number of wind power and photovoltaic new energy projects with a total investment of about 28 billion yuan have been intensively started in this park. The 3.3 million kilowatt multi-energy complementary project built by China Lufa Qinghai New Energy Company is also located in the park. The project has an installed capacity of 3 million kilowatts of photovoltaics and 300,000 kilowatts of solar thermal installation.

According to the project leader of China Lufa Qinghai New Energy Company, after the completion of this project with a total installed capacity of 3.3 million kilowatts, it will become the world's largest multi-energy complementary project with photovoltaic as the main body, further supporting the safe and stable operation of the regional power grid, optimizing the power output, and improving the regulation ability of the power grid system.

As an important clean energy base in the country, the installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind power in Qinghai Province has shown a significant acceleration trend in the past two years. Lu Dan, vice governor of Haixi Prefecture, introduced that at present, the installed capacity of new energy in Haixi Prefecture is 10.96 million kilowatts, and the 4.5 million kilowatts of new energy installed capacity that has been concentrated on the ground will directly drive the local new energy installed capacity to increase by more than 40%.

According to the "Action Plan for Qinghai to Build a National Clean Energy Industry Highland (2021-2030)", by 2030, Qinghai will strive to achieve an installed capacity of more than 100 million kilowatts of new energy. This means that in the past 10 years, Qinghai needs to add an average of nearly 8 million kilowatts of new energy installed capacity every year.

At 8:00 a.m., Lu Wenqiang, a maintenance inspector at Qinghai Yellow River Photovoltaic Maintenance and Inspection Co., Ltd., entered the photovoltaic industrial park located in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture early and carefully inspected the operation of each photovoltaic panel.

At the end of October 2020, the 4 million kilowatt photovoltaic wind power project built by the State Power Investment Yellow River Upper Reaches Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., where Lu Wenqiang is located, has just been completed, and the second phase of the project with a total installed capacity of 5.3 million kilowatts of new energy power has been invested non-stop.

The installed capacity of wind and solar new energy has been greatly accelerated, driving a significant increase in wind turbine and photovoltaic power generation. According to data released by the State Grid Qinghai Company, in the first 11 months of 2021, the total power generation capacity of new energy in Qinghai Power Grid reached 31.3 billion kWh, an increase of 37.9% year-on-year. The total installed capacity of Qinghai power grid is 40.7 million kilowatts, of which 24.85 million kilowatts are installed in new energy, accounting for 61%, and Qinghai power grid has become the provincial power grid with the highest proportion of clean energy and new energy installed capacity in the country.

Big layout: Drive the upgrade of "West-to-East Power Transmission"

Winter gusts of cold winds on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are bone-chilling. On the 100-meter-high transmission tower, Zhao Fucheng, an overhauler of the State Grid Qinghai Electric Power Company Maintenance Company, is working on the transmission line of the Qingyu DC Project.

The Qingyu DC Project will be fully completed and put into operation at the end of 2020. As the world's first UHV transmission line that mainly transports new energy to wind and photovoltaic energy, Qingyu DC Project has delivered about 20 billion kWh of green electricity, which is equivalent to about 9 million tons of replacement raw coal, and can reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by about 45,000 tons, nitrogen oxides by 47,000 tons, and carbon dioxide by 14.8 million tons.

UHV has opened up the "big channel" of West-to-East power transmission, and the power supply side has reshaped the "big base" of West-to-East power transmission. For a long time, the transmission of electricity from the west to the east has mainly been to transport coal that was difficult to transport from the west in the past, and then to the central and eastern regions. Nowadays, the power transmitted from the west to the east is also gradually changing from thermal power to wind and solar new energy.

Since 2021, China has determined the layout of the first batch of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects, with a total scale of about 100 million kilowatts, as of November, the first batch of large bases have started 21 projects in 13 provinces such as Qinghai, Gansu and Inner Mongolia, with a construction scale of more than 500 million kilowatts.

Qinghai is also the first batch of scenery large base layout area. In October 2021, large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects with a total installed capacity of 10.9 million kilowatts were started in Qinghai's Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, including 8 on-site consumption projects and 7 Qinghai-Yu DC project phase II delivery projects.

The total investment of these projects is more than 65 billion yuan, and will be completed by the end of 2023. According to energy categories, photovoltaics are 8 million kilowatts, wind power is 2.5 million kilowatts, and solar thermal is 400,000 kilowatts。 "Arrange tens of millions of kilowatts of new energy installed capacity at one time, which is unprecedented in the history of Qinghai's energy development." Che Junping, deputy director of the Qinghai Provincial Development and Reform Commission and director of the Energy Bureau, said.

According to relevant plans, by 2030, the amount of electricity delivered in Qinghai Province will increase from 27.3 billion kWh in 2020 to 145 billion kWh, and strive to achieve 100% clean energy. According to some interviewed electric power sources, with the continuous advancement of the "double carbon" goal and route, the strategic layout of "large channels" + "large bases" including Qinghai is building an upgraded version of the West-to-East power transmission.

Great innovation: technological breakthroughs enhance the value of "scenery"

At the end of October 2020, the Yellow River Upstream Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. completed the world's largest one-time production scale and the shortest construction time of the 4.05 million kilowatts Qingyu DC project supporting power supply project, accounting for 81% of the entire supporting power project 5 million kilowatts.

New energy power generation is sometimes absent, sometimes large and sometimes small, and the problems of randomness, intermittentness and volatility are prominent. In addition, the conventional power supply installed in Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai is small, and the voltage support capacity is relatively weak, which seriously restricts the normal power of new energy power stations.

In November 2021, the first batch of 11 distributed tuning cameras installed in the new energy collection station was completed and put into operation in Hainan Prefecture, Qinghai. According to industry insiders, the new energy distributed modulator can not only play the role of the system dynamic reactive power reserve, but also provide the whole process of reactive power compensation and voltage support for the new energy power station in sub-transient, transient and steady state.

"This is the first time the company has explored the large-scale installation of distributed tuning cameras on the power side." Xue Ning, a staff member of the technical department of the Yellow River Upstream Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., introduced that this project will effectively solve the voltage stability problem caused by cross-regional DIRECT CURRENT transmission and large-scale access to the power grid of new energy, and accelerate the development of energy transformation.

Under the premise of no reference standard, the Upper Reaches of the Yellow River Hydropower Development Co., Ltd. jointly with a number of research institutions and equipment manufacturers repeatedly carried out technical exchanges and program discussions, conducted full-cycle and multi-angle research from equipment selection, configuration schemes and post-operation and maintenance, and explored the centralized layout schemes and construction processes in the distributed camera factory building with industry representative and guidance, filling a series of technical gaps.

"The successful development of distributed modulators means that in the future, there will be no safety technical obstacles for the operation of 100% OF THE DC UHV that transports new energy from wind and solar energy." Li Zhiqiang, a senior expert at the China Electric Power Research Institute, said.

Distributed tuning camera is a typical case of Qinghai Province's scientific and technological innovation in the field of UHV this year, and it is also the epitome of China's great technological innovation in the field of new energy. According to the data released by the global patent data statistics agency Wisdom Bud, more than 70,000 patented technologies directly related to new energy are distributed in 126 countries and regions around the world, and three Chinese companies, including the State Grid, rank in the top three of the patent application list.

Li Zhi, head of the New Energy Investment Co., Ltd. of the Yellow River Upstream Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., said that after all 21 adjusted cameras are put into operation, it is expected to increase the new energy power generation capacity of 3.15 million kilowatts in Qinghai's Hainan region, and increase the average annual new energy electricity generation by 7.02 billion kWh, which is equivalent to reducing coal burning by 3.189 million tons and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 5.742 million tons, with significant economic and environmental benefits.

Jiang Weiyong, director of the Transmission Network Planning Center of the State Grid Economic and Technological Research Institute, said that with the effective exploration and breakthrough of technologies such as "new energy + energy storage + distributed tuning camera", it can effectively solve a series of problems such as wind and solar new energy consumption in different periods and long-distance transmission, which will steadily increase the proportion of new energy in the energy structure and boost the carbon peak and carbon neutrality in the power field.

Author: □ reporter Xie Tongqiang, Li Jinfeng, Xining report

Source: Economic Reference