As the solar industry pushes for higher output and leaner manufacturing, pushing performance limits requires more than cutting costs. True market success depends on ensuring that next-generation designs can endure decades of field operations without unexpected degradation.
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POWERCHINA has brought its 1 GW Gonghe hybrid photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) project in Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, into full-capacity operation. Developed and operated by POWERCHINA, the project is part of China’s second batch of large-scale wind and solar power bases and combines a 900 MW PV plant with a 100 MW molten-salt tower CSP facility.
The CSP section features a 219 m solar receiver tower and 10,310 heliostats with a total collection area of approximately 500,000 m², while the PV plant uses about 1.898 million modules. The project combines PV generation with molten-salt thermal storage to provide long-duration peak-shaving support. It is expected to deliver more than 2 billion kWh of electricity to the grid annually.
In April, POWERCHINA ignited the 100 MW CSP section of its 1 GW CSP-PV integrated project in Bozhou, Xinjiang (see China Solar PV News Snippets).
Jiangxi Fengyin New Energy plans to invest RMB 60 million in a waste PV module recycling project in Shangrao, Jiangxi province. The facility is designed to process 300,000 metric tons of discarded PV modules annually. The project is undergoing public disclosure of its environmental impact assessment (EIA) and has not yet started construction.
According to the EIA submitted to local authorities, the project will mainly process single-glass PV modules through manual dismantling, oxygen-free pyrolysis at 450°C to 550°C, physical separation, and cleaning. Recovered materials will include tempered glass, aluminum frames, silicon cell material, copper ribbons, and junction boxes. The EIA estimates a resource recovery rate of approximately 94.92%. The recovered silicon cell material and copper ribbons will be sold to downstream processors for further treatment.
Major Chinese energy developer CHN Energy has operationalized all four 660 MW units at its Ningxia Zhongwei Power Plant, completing the 2.64 GW project. The company describes it as China’s first fully operational peaking power source supporting a large-scale renewable energy base in the desert, Gobi, and other arid regions. The plant is designed to generate 11.8 billion kWh annually, with an automatic generation control (AGC) ramp rate of 2.27% of rated capacity per minute.
The facility supports the Tengger Desert renewable energy base in Ningxia and the associated power source base for the Ningxia-Hunan ±800 kV ultra-high-voltage DC transmission project. The broader base is planned to include 13 GW of renewable capacity, comprising 9 GW of solar and 4 GW of wind, alongside 4.64 GW of coal-fired peaking capacity. The plant is expected to help smooth fluctuations in wind and solar output and support the transmission and grid integration of large volumes of renewable power.
In August, CHN Energy fully grid-connected a 1 GW solar PV project in Xinjiang through one of its subsidiaries (see China Solar PV News Snippets).
Guangdong province has introduced a 3-year action plan for energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrades in key industries, including a RMB 0.10/kWh surcharge for projects that fail to meet mandatory energy-consumption limits or benchmark efficiency levels. Projects on the annual list will face the surcharge from January 1 of the following year, in addition to their market-based electricity prices. The additional revenue will be used to offset power-system operating costs. The surcharge will end in the second month after compliance with the relevant efficiency thresholds is verified. Guangdong aims to reduce capacity operating below benchmark efficiency levels to near zero by the end of 2028.
The plan also calls for wider use of clean energy in energy-intensive sectors. Cement producers are encouraged to develop distributed solar, distributed wind, and energy storage in an integrated manner. It also emphasizes greater use of green power in flat-glass production and solar energy in the paper industry. Coal-fired power plants can pursue low-carbon upgrades by integrating renewable energy and adding storage. Guangdong also plans to accelerate the development of energy-saving and carbon-reduction standards for sectors including PV equipment manufacturing.
The measures follow a national 3-year campaign that the National Development and Reform Commission and four other central government agencies published in June. The national plan allows regions to impose differential power tariffs up to RMB 0.10/kWh above market-based electricity prices and promotes integrating coal-fired power with renewable energy and storage.
Nine electricity retailers in Guangxi affiliated with centrally administered state-owned enterprises, including subsidiaries of CHN Energy and CR Power, have jointly petitioned the regional government over mounting power-market losses. They said wholesale electricity costs have remained above retail contract prices, resulting in cumulative losses of more than RMB 2 billion from January to August. September losses were expected to exceed RMB 1 billion, while full-year losses could surpass RMB 5 billion.
The companies said they signed their 2026 retail contracts at fixed prices averaging about RMB 0.260/kWh, while Guangxi’s average spot-market price reached RMB 0.633/kWh on September 30. Following the broader shift of wind and solar generation to market-based trading, they called for proper implementation of settlement rules for electricity volumes covered by the renewable energy price mechanism.
They argued that prices under medium- and long-term contracts signed by the grid company on behalf of commercial and industrial (C&I) users should be passed directly through to those users, rather than leaving electricity retailers to absorb the price difference. They also requested that September settlements be deferred, a wholesale-retail price pass-through mechanism be established, and orderly termination of retail contracts be supported.
