The plant has a total capacity of 6.09 billion kWh, which is enough to a small country for an entire year. China has just connected what it believes to be the world’s biggest solar power plant to the grid in northwestern Xinjiang.
In June 2024, China activated the world's largest solar power facility, a 3.5-gigawatt (GW) installation in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Built by Power Construction Corporation of China, this plant produces around 6.09 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually.
Most of China's solar power is generated within its western provinces and is transferred to other regions of the country. In 2011, China owned the largest solar power plant in the world at the time, the Huanghe Hydropower Golmud Solar Park, which had a photovoltaic capacity of 200 MW.
Located in Datong City, Shanxi Province, it is the country's 3rd largest solar power plant. China's National Energy Administration aimed to install solar plants in this area. After successful completion of the project's 1st phase in 2016, this solar plant now has a total capacity of 1.1 gigawatts.
The world's largest and highest-altitude hydro-solar power plant, which generates power through a water-light complementary manner, entered full operation in China on Sunday. For the first time, the Kela photovoltaic power station boasts of an installed capacity scale of 1 million kilowatts for a hydro-solar power grid.
China presently is on the top of the list to have the largest solar resources in the world, with about 40 GW expected to be operational by 2020, bringing the country's overall solar generation (installed capacity) to 240 gigawatts. China's solar capacity has expanded far beyond fivefold in the last five years and could double by 2025.