At the edge of the Tengger Desert at noon in August, photovoltaic panels are like a silent blue sea, swallowing the burning sun inch by inch, and then turning into electricity to send to factories, farmland and urban buildings in the five provinces and regions in the northwest. On the screen of the dispatch hall of State Grid Northwest Branch, a curve suddenly climbed around 12 o'clock -123.87 million kilowatts, setting a new high for the maximum photovoltaic power generation of Northwest Power Grid. At that moment, photovoltaic power generation accounted for 55% of the total output of the Northwest Power Grid and 93% of the total output of new energy power generation. During the midday load peak, almost every two degrees of electricity came from the sun.

Installation exceeds that of thermal power plants

This is not an accidental peak. As of the end of July this year, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation in Northwest Power Grid has reached 250 million kilowatts, accounting for 34% of the total installed capacity, surpassing the historical proportion of thermal power installed capacity. From January to July, the newly installed photovoltaic capacity in Northwest China was 11.21 million kilowatts, with a cumulative photovoltaic power generation of 161.7 billion kilowatt hours, equivalent to 25.8% of the total electricity consumption in the region, an increase of 4.1 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025.

Expanding our horizons, the total installed capacity of the Northwest Power Grid has exceeded 700 million kilowatts, of which the installed capacity of new energy exceeds 400 million kilowatts, accounting for about 60%. It is the first regional power grid in China with new energy as the main installed capacity. Relying on 14 operating DC lines, the northwest region transmitted 411 billion kilowatt hours of electricity across regions last year, of which 34% was from new energy and 24 provinces were directly supplied with green electricity.

Shage Wilderness to Green Power Plant

Install a lot, but also make sure to send steadily and effectively. The Northwest Division is focusing on both grid connection and forecasting: the accuracy of new energy generation forecasting has reached 97%, the transmission capacity of important transmission channels and key sections continues to be tapped, and there is no longer a forced abandonment of photovoltaic power during midday.

His gaze fell to the ground, and in the deserts and Gobi of Xinjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai, the large-scale wind and photovoltaic bases in the desert wasteland were pieced together and landed one by one. Gansu Hexi Corridor gathers more than 500 new energy stations, and the single large photovoltaic project in Tengger Desert Base is steadily advancing; The cumulative power generation of Xinjiang desert photovoltaic and wind power matrix has reached nearly 5 billion kilowatt hours. Not only photovoltaic panels, but also new energy storage, pumped storage, flexible DC, and virtual power plants have entered the field. The installed capacity of new energy storage in Gansu Province has reached nearly 9.81 million kilowatts, using energy storage+new energy models to stabilize fluctuations.

New system acceleration

When PV changed from supporting role to the main force at noon, the operation logic of the grid was rewritten. In the past, we relied on thermal power to top up the load and new energy to fill the gap; At noon, we rely on photovoltaics to carry the heavy burden, and during peak hours in the morning and evening, we rely on energy storage and discharge, direct current transmission to reduce peak hours, and thermal power conversion to regulate power sources for backup. The Northwest Division is advancing along the path of a new power system: optimizing grid connected services, expanding external transmission channels, and linking the Shage Wilderness Base and load center with ultra-high voltage.keywords:New energy information network

According to the planning criteria, by the end of the 15th Five Year Plan, the proportion of new energy installed capacity in Northwest China will exceed 70%, the proportion of new energy generation will exceed 50%, and the scale of external transmission, resource regulation, and main grid structure will continue to double. The noon curve on August 4th is not the endpoint, but a one grid scale indicating the transition from an energy base in the northwest to a national green power hub.

The light in the desert may not always be strong, but the plate array spreads out year after year, and the channels are connected. The northwest converts sunlight into installed capacity, installed capacity into electricity, and electricity into stable power for external transmission to the east - the fact that photovoltaics are the main force has become a reality that repeats itself every noon on the dispatch screen.Editor/Yang Meiling