Major Signal: Over 85GW of Projects Launched, Photovoltaic Industry Ushers in a New Turning Point!

Since April, "Wind and Solar Power Bases" have been frequently mentioned in high-level policy statements, a notably unusual intensity of focus. In mid-April, Wang Hongzhi, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the National Energy Administration, published an article explicitly calling for the advancement of wind and solar bases in the "Three Norths" regions (Northeast, North, and Northwest China) and integrated hydro-wind-solar bases in Southwest China.

On April 17, Wang Changlin, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, speaking at the inaugural press conference for the "15th Five-Year Plan Kickoff" series, announced that a "Ten-Year Doubling Action" for non-fossil energy would be implemented during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. This includes the high-quality development of major projects like the "Sand, Gobi, and Desert" (S-G-D) new energy bases.

Just three days later, on April 20, Premier Li Qiang further emphasized the need to accelerate the construction of wind and solar bases in Northwest China during a special study session on "Coordinating Energy Security and Green Low-Carbon Transition to Speed Up the Development of a New Type of Energy System."

With the central government setting the tone, local authorities have moved quickly to follow suit. Multiple provinces have already incorporated clean energy bases into their "15th Five-Year Plan," and major state-owned energy enterprises are accelerating their project rollout. According to incomplete statistics, since the beginning of this year, new energy base projects with a total capacity exceeding 85GW have made substantial progress.

At this critical juncture, the simultaneous intensification of policy support and project scale sends a clear and unmistakable signal.

Why is going all out on wind and solar power bases so critical?

Tracing back to its origins, the concept of large-scale wind and solar bases is not new. As early as late 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) released the first batch of project lists for major wind and solar bases in desert, Gobi, and desert regions, with a total installed capacity of approximately 97 GW. The list for the second batch followed in July 2022, and the third batch was officially issued in April 2023. Combined, these three batches plan for a total installed capacity exceeding 430 GW.

This raises a question: Why is a policy that has been in progress for nearly five years suddenly being elevated to an unprecedented level today?

The answer lies in the growing pains currently plaguing the photovoltaic industry.

Data released by the NEA on April 23 shows that in the first quarter of 2026, China's newly installed solar capacity was 41.39 GW, a year-on-year decrease of 31%. In March alone, new installations were a mere 8.91 GW, representing a staggering year-on-year drop of 56%.

In fact, the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) had already forecasted a range of 180 GW to 240 GW for new installations in 2026 as early as last year, so the downward trend was not entirely unexpected. However, a 30% drop in just the first quarter was a shock in terms of both speed and magnitude, exceeding most expectations.

The direct cause of this rapid decline is the chain reaction triggered by electricity price marketization reforms. Following the release of "Document No. 136" in 2025, on-grid tariffs for new energy sources are now determined by market trading. This has heightened investors' concerns regarding power plant yield rates, leading to more prudent investment decisions and leaving the overall market in a phase of digesting policies and waiting on the sidelines.

A deeper constraint comes from new energy consumption (grid absorption). The massive integration of distributed photovoltaics has led to increasingly prominent issues such as reverse overload in distribution networks and voltage limit violations. Currently, "red zones" for low-voltage carrying capacity cover at least 11 provinces, and over 150 regions have suspended new distributed PV connections due to saturated grid capacity.

Meanwhile, consumption indicators are also under pressure. From January to February 2026, the national photovoltaic utilization rate dropped to 90.8%, a year-on-year decrease of 3.1 percentage points. Regional disparities are evident: Tibet's utilization rate was a mere 60.8%, Qinghai 78.7%, and major PV-rich provinces like Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Xinjiang were all generally below the national average.

With distributed connections facing restrictions and centralized grid absorption under pressure, both pathways have become challenging. It is precisely this dual squeeze that further highlights the urgency of developing large-scale bases.

Located in underutilized western regions—such as deserts, Gobi, and barren lands—these bases offer low land costs, massive development potential, and facilitate unified planning and centralized transmission. More critically, they can be bundled with Ultra-High Voltage (UHV) transmission channels, directly delivering power from resource-rich western areas to eastern load centers.

As distributed growth slows and grid connection capacity narrows, large bases are taking the baton for new installations. This is not only a proactive policy push but also an inevitable structural adjustment for the industry. In this sense, increasing investment in large bases is not merely a stopgap measure to stabilize installation figures.

Its deeper intention is to steer the photovoltaic industry away from a scale race focused on "how much is installed" and back onto a track of efficiency focused on "how much is generated and utilized."

Over 85GW of Projects Underway: Large-Scale Bases Enter an Acceleration Phase

With the policy direction clearly set and an industry-wide consensus reached, the pace of large-scale base construction is visibly accelerating, and project momentum is surging.

Geographically, clean energy base projects breaking ground this year span multiple provinces—including Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Sichuan, and Gansu—essentially covering all key planned regions for "Sand, Gobi, and Desert" (S-G-D) bases.

In terms of project typology, diverse synergistic models are becoming the mainstream. These include "PV + Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) + Thermal Storage," "Hydro-Solar Complementarity," "Wind-Solar-Thermal-Storage Integration," and "Grassland-Solar Complementarity."

A prime example is in Xinjiang, where China Energy Construction Group (CEEC) has officially commenced work on the 1,500 MW Hami "Solar-Thermal-Storage" base. As a core flagship project of the second batch of national S-G-D bases, it stands as the world's largest single-phase "Solar-Thermal-Storage" integrated project in terms of construction scale.

In Shanxi, the country's only "Sand, Gobi, and Desert" (S-G-D) base primarily located in a coal mining subsidence area is accelerating. The Jibei base plans for 60 GW of new energy capacity and relies on a 1,000 kV UHV AC transmission channel to deliver clean power to the load centers in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

In Sichuan, the 1,600 MW Ganzi Baiyu Dayike Hydro-Solar Complementary PV Project, invested by China Huadian Group, has officially launched. It stands as the province's largest single PV project and the world's second-largest hydro-solar complementary power generation facility.

In Inner Mongolia, the Kubuqi Desert is becoming the most intensive area for large-scale base construction. The power supply schemes for the "Kubuqi-to-Shanghai" and "Kubuqi-to-Jiangsu" bases have been approved by the National Energy Administration. These projects plan for a combined 160 GW of PV and 85 GW of wind power, with a total investment exceeding 127 billion yuan. Additionally, the PV component of the Wushen Banner Wind-Solar Hydrogen Production Integration Project broke ground in April, offering a new pathway for the green transition of the coal chemical industry.

In Gansu, the 2,000 MW Gulang Longdian-to-Zhejiang Huanghuatan PV Project has also fully entered the construction phase.

From Hami to Kubuqi, and from Jibei to Ganzi, with over 85 GW of projects advancing simultaneously, wind and solar power bases are transitioning from blueprints to reality.

Despite the Acceleration, Several Hurdles Remain

The speed at which projects are breaking ground is exhilarating, but the other side of the coin cannot be ignored. As the construction of wind and solar bases accelerates, the long-standing practical challenges remain fully intact.

The most prominent bottleneck remains the transmission corridors. Since these bases are concentrated in the western deserts and Gobi regions—far from the load centers in the central and eastern parts of the country—Ultra-High Voltage (UHV) lines are the only way to deliver the power. However, the cycle for planning, approving, and constructing a UHV line is significantly longer than that of a PV station. This rhythm mismatch could lead to the awkward situation where completed bases face "power curtailment" because the electricity cannot be transmitted out.

The capacity for local consumption is equally limited. The electricity demand in western provinces is far lower than in the east. Utilization rates in regions like Tibet, Qinghai, and Xinjiang are already noticeably below the national average. If local consumption capacity does not improve and transmission channels fail to keep pace, there is a risk that even massive installed capacity will end up "trapped in the desert."

Coordinated scheduling for multi-energy complementarity presents another technical challenge. In the northwest, the "Sand, Gobi, and Desert" (S-G-D) bases rely primarily on wind and solar power, which are characterized by strong output volatility, requiring precise coordination with thermal power and energy storage. Meanwhile, hydro-solar-wind bases in the southwest face significant output disparities between the wet and dry seasons. Efficiently orchestrating these diverse power sources is not a simple matter of addition; it is a complex systems engineering feat.

These practical hurdles will not vanish automatically simply because policy prioritizes them. For large-scale bases to truly shoulder the responsibility, they must not only run fast but also walk steadily—every step is a tough battle. While the journey is thorny, the direction is clear.

The accelerated advancement of wind and solar bases is not only an inevitable choice for the PV industry to break through its malaise and reconstruct its development logic, but also a key measure to implement the "15th Five-Year Plan" action for doubling non-fossil energy and fortifying the energy security barrier. With policy support, the bottlenecks constraining development are gradually transforming into opportunities for industrial upgrading. In the future, as supporting measures take effect, these bases will achieve an organic unity of large-scale development and high-efficiency utilization, leading the PV industry through its cyclical challenges.