China's largest solar power tower project linked to power grid

The Aksai Huidong New Energy solar farm, China's largest solar power tower project, was connected to the power grid at full capacity on Saturday.

Located in Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County in northwest China's Gansu Province, this cutting-edge project sets itself apart by employing Chinese-initiated pentagonal heliostats, each weighing up to 1.2 tons and covering 48 square meters, to receive focused sunlight through the tower.

Altogether, the project boasts a substantial 750 MW installed gross capacity, including 110 MW of solar thermal power and 640 MW of photovoltaic power, with the latter connected to the grid in mid-August.

To reduce power plant costs and address issues such as fluctuations and intermittent blackouts, the project introduced a solution called intelligent coupling -- the integration of various smart technologies to enhance efficiency and monitoring.

"During the day, while the photovoltaic panels continue to generate electricity, the heliostats installed at the solar thermal area collects sunlight and send it to the surface of the heat absorber on the top of the tower to heat the fused slat for storage of the thermal energy. The energy will be released at night to generate steam, which can drive the generator sets to generate electricity. The mode makes it possible to generate electricity for eight hours stably at night, coping with the fluctuations and intermittency of a single photovoltaic power plant and significantly improving the economy of the power station," said Fang Jun, manager of the project.

The solar farm is expected to generate 1.7 billion kWh of power annually.

China's largest solar power tower project linked to power grid

China's top legislator Zhao Leji met with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in Beijing on Tuesday.

Zhao, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said that China stands ready to work with Tajikistan to strengthen cooperation across multiple key areas.

Taking the important consensus reached by the two heads of state as the fundamental guideline, Zhao said the two sides should aim to deepen strategic mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, promote high-quality development of China-Central Asia cooperation, and build a China-Tajikistan community with a shared future featuring everlasting friendship, solidarity, and mutual benefit and win-win results.

Zhao said China's NPC is ready to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the parliament of Tajikistan to provide a legal guarantee for the long-term healthy and stable development of China-Tajikistan relations.

Rahmon said Tajikistan firmly adheres to the one-China principle and fully supports the four major global initiatives put forward by China.

He said Tajikistan is glad to see the great achievements China has made in its modernization drive, and is ready to strengthen practical cooperation with China in various fields such as politics, economy and culture, deepen exchanges between legislative bodies, and continuously enhance the friendly feelings between the two peoples.

On Tuesday morning, Rahmon laid a wreath at the Monument to the People's Heroes.

Rahmon is paying a state visit to China from from Monday to Thursday at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China's top legislator meets Tajik president