China Energy Investment Corp, also known as CHN Energy, has vowed to continue stepping up the construction of mega renewable energy bases in desert, gobi and wasteland areas, as such projects have become a primary pillar supporting the future growth of China's new energy sector.

The State-owned energy giant has been advancing efforts to develop large-scale wind and solar bases in these regions, said Chen Jing, deputy spokesperson for CHN Energy.

Guided by an overall strategy anchored by mega wind and solar bases, supported by nearby clean and efficient coal-fired power, and delivered via ultrahigh voltage transmission corridors, the company is closely integrating clean energy expansion with ecological restoration, Chen said.

Under this framework, CHN Energy has rolled out major renewable bases across deserts and coal-mining subsidence zones in resource-rich northern and northwestern provincial-level regions — including Shanxi, Shaanxi, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region and the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, spearheading the country's mega-base development drive, Chen said.

Noting that China has 2.61 million square kilometers of desertified land, or 27 percent of the nation's total territory, Chen highlighted the vast untapped potential of these barren landscapes.

"If just 1 percent of China's desertified land is utilized for new energy power generation, its installed capacity would exceed the country's current total installed power capacity," Chen said.

A flagship example is CHN Energy's Tengger desert base in Ningxia, China's first mega desert energy base to receive dual national approvals.

With a total planned capacity of 17.64 million kilowatts — over 73 percent of which comes from new energy — the base saw its first-phase 3-million-kW photovoltaic project achieve full-capacity operation in October 2025.

The company's push aligns with China's broader national blueprint. In July, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for Renewable Energy Development, explicitly calling for deeper development of wind and solar bases across the "Three-North" regions — Northwest, North and Northeast China — with a focus on desert, gobi and wasteland areas.

Industry experts said that scaling up these mega bases is critical not only for securing China's long-term energy supply and fueling West-to-East clean power transmission, but also for forging a sustainable "PV-plusecology" model.

By shading the ground, reducing surface water evaporation and lowering wind speeds, vast solar arrays help curb desertification while turning idle land into green economic assets, said Lin Boqiang, director of Xiamen University's China Center for Energy Economics Research.

Technological innovation is also proving essential in overcoming harsh geographical constraints. At the 6-million-kW PV base in Ningxia — China's largest single-unit solar project built over a coal-mining subsidence area — engineers first had to solve the problem of geological instability.

The project pioneered an intelligent monitoring and early-warning technology that enables precise tracking and graded alerts for geological subsidence across gigawatt-scale solar farms.

According to Chen, in terms of operation and maintenance, the project also developed an integrated regional smart control system that combines on-site control with remote centralized management.

Supported by intelligent drone inspections, autonomous smart cleaning robots and comprehensive PV empirical testing technologies, the project has set an industry benchmark for the smart operation of mega renewable energy bases nationwide, Chen said.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn