Overview
At a regular press conference, the National Energy Administration (NEA) disclosed that shagehuang (desert, Gobi and barren-land) mega wind-solar bases have cumulatively reached over 157 GW built capacity: 94.53 GW from the first batch, 34+ GW from the second, and 29+ GW from the third, with the latter two to be accelerated for local consumption and largely completed by end-2027.
Separately, China Green Development’s 60 MW liquid-air energy storage (LAES) national demo in Golmud, Qinghai—the world’s largest—grid-connected successfully, using −194°C cryogenic liquefaction with 100% domestic equipment, ranking first globally in both power and capacity. Xinjiang is moving from transmitting power to transmitting compute, with the Three Gorges Hami 1 GW CSP-PV project (8h molten-salt storage, 2.067 TWh/year) feeding advanced computing clusters on green power.
Background & Interpretation
1. Industry Background and Policy Context
Shagehuang bases are the core of the new power system, co-developed with regulating power and transmission corridors. Long-duration storage is embedded in the consumption system; compute-power synergy echoes the East Data West Computing and green-compute strategies, upgrading western green power from selling electricity to selling compute services.
2. Core Drivers and Underlying Mechanism
LAES uses air as the working fluid, storing/releasing energy at ambient-pressure cryogenic temperatures—geography-independent, safe, long-lived and scalable—ideal for multi-day regulation in mega-bases. Xinjiang’s model pairs ultra-low-latency all-optical networks and natural cooling to turn desert renewables into a green compute substrate.
3. Market Structure and Value-Chain Impact
Base scale-up drives demand across PV, wind, storage, UHV and compute hardware. LAES adds a self-reliant long-duration route alongside lithium, pumped hydro and molten salt. Resource-rich regions like Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang evolve toward a base + corridor + load loop.
Implications & Outlook
Near-term, 157 GW marks the shift from blueprint to real capacity; medium-term, long-duration storage and compute synergy will reshape West-to-East flow and host AI on green power. Watch batch-three commissioning, LAES commercial cost-down, and green-power-direct-to-datacenter scale.
Takeaways for Industry Participants
Developers should pre-position long-duration and grid-forming storage for base consumption; compute firms can leverage western green power and cooling to cut PUE and carbon; equipment makers find upside in LAES, molten salt and UHV.
This column compiles industry information and shares technical perspectives; it does not constitute investment advice.