On June 29, 2026, on the saline alkali land of Da'an, Jilin, a 189 meter high heat absorbing tower pierced through the freezing cold wind at 45 degrees north latitude. With the successful grid connection and power generation of the 100000 kilowatt solar thermal power station at CGN Jixi Base, the northernmost part of China's new energy landscape has been illuminated. This is not only the birth of the first solar thermal power station in Northeast China, but also a great victory for humanity in taming sunlight in the almost extremely cold "forbidden zone".

Building a new energy tower in the high-altitude restricted area

On June 29, 2026, the first solar thermal power station in Northeast China with the highest latitude in China was officially put into operation in Da'an City, Jilin Province. The project is located in a severe cold climate zone at 45.36 degrees north latitude, with a minimum temperature of minus 37.3 degrees Celsius and a maximum wind speed of up to level 9.

The power station adopts single tower single mirror field molten salt tower technology, with an installed capacity of 100000 kilowatts, a heat storage time of 8 hours, and a 24-hour continuous stable operation capability. The project team has strictly controlled the verticality deviation of the 189 meter high heat absorption tower within 10 millimeters through innovative construction techniques, successfully overcoming multiple natural challenges such as high groundwater levels, saline alkali geology, and soil viscosity, and setting a new benchmark for China's energy infrastructure.

Core technology solves extreme cold problems

Faced with the severe test of extreme environments, Chinese engineers have completed a technological leap from following to leading. Through systematic research and development, CGN has successfully mastered a complete set of key technologies such as molten salt anti solidification, mirror field anti wind and snow, low-temperature pile foundation construction, and composite waterproofing for large storage tanks.

The power station mirror field consists of 19667 high-precision heliostats, with a total area of 590000 square meters. It can accurately concentrate sunlight to a heat absorber at an altitude of 210 meters, converting light energy into 565 degrees Celsius of thermal energy. This set of standardized solutions fills the technological gap in the large-scale application of solar thermal power generation in high latitude and cold regions around the world.

Optimizing energy allocation through wind solar energy storage linkage

As one of the first national demonstration projects for integrated wind, solar, and thermal storage in the Shage Desert, this power station is not only a single power source, but also a stabilizer for the regional energy system. Keywords: New energy news and information, new breakthroughs in solar thermal technology

It is equipped with a 40000 kW molten salt electric heater, which can deeply link with the surrounding 260000 kW wind power and 130000 kW photovoltaic projects that have already been put into operation. When there is excess wind and solar power generation, the surplus electricity is converted into thermal energy storage; On rainy days or at night, heat energy is converted back into electrical output. This multi energy complementary mode effectively mitigates wind and solar power curtailment, with an expected annual power generation of 180 million kilowatt hours, saving 54000 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 139000 tons, providing a replicable model for China to build a new type of power system.Editor/Gao Xue