China inaugurates world’s largest ultra-high-altitude wind farm

China inaugurated the world’s largest ultra-high-altitude wind power generation project, built at an altitude of 4,650 meters, on Monday, January 1, 2024.

The wind farm, located in Nagqu Town, Seni District of Nagqu City, nestled in the Xizang Autonomous Region, falls into the rare category of ultra-high-altitude wind power facilities.

According to the China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy), the project’s developer, For wind projects, a plant built at an altitude of 3,500 to 5,500 meters is considered ultra-high.

The facility has a capacity of 100 megawatts (MW) and is expected to generate 200 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually.

The world’s largest ultra-high-altitude wind power generation project based in Nagqu County of southwest China’s Xizang (Tibet) Autonomous Region will go into operation on Monday, the very first day of 2024.https://t.co/QesItpJy2c pic.twitter.com/PP0lteJJiS

— CCTV+ (@CCTV_Plus) January 1, 2024

The facility, sprawling over an expansive area exceeding 140,000 square meters with 25 wind turbines, is expected to provide electricity to approximately 230,000 local residents.

High altitude challenges

Because of the ultra-high altitude location, the wind farms presented significant engineering challenges.

The extreme weather conditions, low air density impacting turbine efficiency, and rapid degradation of materials due to UV exposure and temperature fluctuations posed formidable obstacles. However, these challenges were met and overcome with a set of innovative solutions.

“In the early stage of our design, we adopted a smart wind power platform to conduct accurate assessment of wind measurement, site selection and wind resources, developing an integrated design of the wind farm,” Hu Jiansheng, head of the 100MW wind power project, told China Media Group (CMG).

“With stability control technology, we have overcome the problems caused by the ultra-high altitude, including the low efficiency of wind energy conversion and the deceleration of wind turbines’ blades,” Jiansheng said.

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Jiansheng stated that the blades for the turbines had to be of exceptional high quality because the turbines are exposed to extreme weather such as hail and lightning, as well as damage caused by UV rays, drastic changes in temperature, and frequent erosion by wind, sand, rain and snow.

He added that a special technique was also developed to spray the outer layer of the paint to effectively prevent it from turning too dry and crispy, mitigating the aging of other exposed parts of the wind turbines.

The monumental development marks China’s progress in the global renewable energy race. Before the operation commenced, a final inspection of the turbines was conducted, ensuring all systems were primed for the grid connection.