China’s list of attractions could soon include the ‘Great Wall’ of solar panels after the Asian giant has turned the dunes of the Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia into a 250-mile (400 km) strip of clean-energy infrastructure. Sitting among the panels is a city-sized image of a galloping horse, which is a Guinness World Record for the largest image ever made out of solar panels.

Even as the US struggles to decide on a clear policy to build clean energy infrastructure or burn more fossil fuels in the long run, China has taken an aggressive stance to secure its energy needs by building a mix of nuclear and renewable power plants. 

Interesting Engineering has previously reported how China is building nuclear energy facilities at scale and some of the biggest solar power plants in the world. 

Now, images from the Operational Land Imager on Landsat 8 and Landsat 9, captured over seven years apart, show how aggressively China has built a large array of solar panels that is not only visible from space but also plans to power the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with 40 billion kiloWatt-hours (kWh) of clean energy by the end of this decade. 

100 GW solar power capacity

China’s ambitious plan is to build 100 gigawatts of solar energy capacity in the region through a 250-mile-long solar panel corridor that extends up to three miles wide. As of 2024, only 5.4 GW was considered completed, with 2 GW of power coming online through the Three Gorges Kubuqi base. 

While this might seem low, estimates suggest that 7 GW of installed capacity is expected to come online this year. The Three Gorges Kubuqi base alone is designed to deliver 16 GW of output, with a mix of solar and wind installations of 8 GW and 4 GW, respectively.

Interestingly, the remaining 4 GW of capacity comes from coal, which is expected to help keep the grid stable when renewable output is inconsistent.

One of the features of the completed installation so far is the Junma Solar Power Station, which features the galloping horse array. While this has earned the site a Guinness World Record, it does a bigger job of generating 2 billion kWh of energy a year. 

Not just for power

While the power generation from the upcoming facility will be massive, the panels are designed to do more than just that. Mounted higher than usual, these solar panels also serve as windbreaks and slow the wind blowing through these areas. The shade of the panels cuts evaporation and gives a chance for grass and crops to grow in the region. 

Satellite images have also confirmed greening of the region, where panels have been installed for a while. Science is still figuring out if such greening will also change rainfall patterns in the region, turning the desert into more than a grassland in the future. 

However, the main challenge for the project is sending all this generated energy to cities 800 miles (~1300 km) away. While this has been a bottleneck for grid operators in the US as well, the Chinese seem to be better at resolving it as transmission lines have already begun connecting the Inner Mongolia region with cities in the south and the east. 

It’s not just a design; the galloping horse is actually a signal of how China is progressing toward meeting its energy security goals while keeping climate goals in mind.