From June 20 to 28, northwest China’s Qinghai Province realized province-wide power supply totally by clean energy for 216 consecutive hours. The power supply is generated by hydropower, solar energy and wind power with zero carbon emission.

In the nine-day Clean Energy Power Supply Action, the power generated by Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd - a subsidiary of SPIC - reaches 133.8 million kilowatt-hours, accounting for 70 percent of the entire power supply in Qinghai Province.

Qinghai is rich in hydropower, solar energy and wind power. The renewable energy accounts for 84% of the province’s total power generation today.

Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd has become a leading company in the field of renewable energy research and development in China. The company’s total installed capacity reaches 15,950 megawatts (MW). The clean energy accounts for 92% of total, including 10,830 MW of hydropower, 2,860 MW of PV power and 600 MW of wind power respectively. Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd is the largest PV power plant operator worldwide and the largest hydropower plant in northwest China.

With its hydropower stations on upper stream of the Yellow River and photovoltaic power stations, the Huanghe company plays an important role in supporting the nine-day action. These power stations with installed capacity of over 12 million kilowatts undertake a critical work to ensure the safe operation of power grid during the clean energy action. Especially some of these power stations are the major power supply source in the power grid in northwest China.

To solve the problems of intermittency and volatility of photovoltaic power, the Huanghe company has developed a leading hydro-solar complementation technology, which utilizes the abundant and stable hydropower to make up weak solar power generation during night and rainy day, thus ensuring stability and safety of power grid when it is connected to clean power.

The Clean Energy Power Supply Action aims to test whether the grid system can operate safely and stably to meet the demand for industrial production and household consumption under the circumstance of using clean energy supply only. Based on such experience, the power supply in Qinghai Province will shift to renewable energy more in future.

Before, such clean energy actions were conducted only twice around the world, once in Portugal and the other in China. In 2017, Qinghai Province had initiated the clean energy action for the first time which lasted for seven days (168 hours). During the seven days, Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd generated over 1 billion kilowatt hour, accounting for 74 percent of the whole power generation in Qinghai Province in the action.

For this time, the clean energy action again demonstrates the feasibility and safety of power supply by clean energy in the province wide, further enhancing confidence of government, power enterprises and the public in the comprehensive use of clean energy in the future.