The Xinjiang solar farm in China, which went online last month, has taken first place as the largest solar farm in the world, with a capacity of 5GW, pushing the Golmud Solar Park, also based in China, into second place in the process.
The new facility, believed to be roughly the size of New York city, was officially connected to the grid on Monday 3 June. It is located in the Kubuiq desert in north-west China and has a capacity of 5GW.
China recognised an opportunity to create the solar panels in response to growing demand from the US and Europe, due to easily accessible local raw materials, a good supply chain and efficient labour. However, because the market was heavily subsidised by the Chinese government, which held the monopoly, many countries imposed a tariff on solar panels imported from China. Whilst the US is still imposing these tariffs, they were lifted by the EU in 2018 .
The project will help to reduce China’s dependence on other countries for energy (it is currently the world’s largest importer of coal) as well as preventing 2 million tonnes of carbon emissions into the atmosphere each year.
