At the high altitude of 5228 meters in the "forbidden zone of life", a groundbreaking "world's highest" photovoltaic power generation project was successfully connected to the grid for power generation.

Recently, the second phase of the Huadian Tibet Caipeng Photovoltaic Storage Power Station project was connected to the grid for power generation. The project is located in Nadong District, Shannan City, with a site elevation between 5046 meters and 5228 meters. It has become the world's highest altitude photovoltaic storage project, providing practical experience for the construction of new energy industries in high-altitude and cold areas.

The total installed capacity of the Tibet Caipeng Photovoltaic Storage Project is 150,000 kilowatts. The project is led by the Kunming Institute of China Power Construction Corporation and the China Power Construction No. 9 Hydropower Bureau is responsible for the construction. Among them, the first phase of the project located at 5100 meters will be put into operation at the end of 2023, and has accumulated more than 60 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, effectively alleviating the seasonal power shortage problem in Shannan area.

The second phase of the project started construction in August 2024. The total rated capacity of the project is 100,000 kilowatts. It is planned to install nearly 170,000 solar panels and configure a 20MW/80MWh grid-type energy storage system, which can output a total of 80,000 kWh of electricity for 4 consecutive hours at night.

China Power Construction introduced that the second phase of the power station project uses a new generation of photovoltaic modules, which has increased the photoelectric conversion efficiency by 7.5%, and adopts bifacial solar panel design, which can make full use of the reflected light on the ground for power generation. The overall efficiency is 20% higher than that of traditional facial photovoltaic panels.

Now, the smooth commissioning of the second phase of the project will further enhance the power generation capacity of the entire photovoltaic storage power station. The annual power generation is expected to reach 155 million kWh, meeting the annual electricity demand of about 50,000 households. This achievement will effectively alleviate the power shortage problem in the winter and spring seasons in the central Tibet region.

China Power Construction said that the entire second phase of the project covers an area of ​​about 2,000 mu, with a total of 250,000 photovoltaic panels laid. The region has extremely abundant average annual solar radiation, more than twice that of plain areas at the same latitude. The resource grade is rated A, providing unique natural conditions for the efficient operation of photovoltaic power stations.