The wind and light on the edge of the Badain Jaran Desert are about to be transported across thousands of miles to the Sichuan Basin through a new ultra-high voltage channel. According to the latest official news in October 2026, the Sichuan ultra-high voltage direct current project for power transmission from the Badain Jaran Desert Base in Gansu Province has been officially approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, marking a breakthrough in the preliminary work of this northwest clean energy transmission artery.

Article 4: Ground forming of ultra-high voltage external transmission channel

The Longdian Sichuan Project is a key project in the national 14th Five Year Plan for power development, and it is also the fourth ultra-high voltage direct current transmission channel planned and constructed in Gansu Province after Longdian enters Hunan, Longdian enters Shandong, Longdian enters Zhejiang. The project starts from Jinta County, Jiuquan City, Gansu Province and ends in Lezhi County, Ziyang City, Sichuan Province. The line passes through three provinces and regions of Gansu, Inner Mongolia, and Sichuan, with a rated transmission capacity of 8 million kilowatts. The total length of the DC line is 1459.7 kilometers, and the total investment is 23.654 billion yuan.

Among them, the length of the line within Gansu Province is 1160.7 kilometers, accounting for nearly 80% of the total line, directly connecting the Shage Wilderness Base with abundant wind and solar resources and the Southwest Load Center. The total installed capacity of the supporting power supply has reached 15 million kilowatts, and the transmission end is connected to the large-scale wind and solar base in Badain Jaran Desert. The supporting new energy installed capacity is 11 million kilowatts, and 4 million kilowatts of peak shaving coal-fired power and 2 million kilowatts of 4-hour electrochemical energy storage are synchronously matched, achieving the mutual replenishment of water and fire between northwest wind and southwest hydropower.

Ganchuan Energy Collaboration welcomes a new support node

After the project is put into operation, a stable interconnection channel will be established between the Northwest Clean Energy Base and the Southwest Load Center, fully releasing the natural resources of Gansu's wind and solar power, assisting in the large-scale transmission and consumption of new energy, and promoting the complementary and coordinated development of energy between Gansu and Sichuan provinces. The locally enriched wind and solar power in Gansu will obtain a new stable external transmission path, and Sichuan can also add a large-scale external clean power supply channel in addition to local hydropower.

The approval and implementation of this ultra-high voltage direct current project also marks the further improvement of Gansu's external transmission network as an important national new energy base. It will enter a tense construction and implementation stage in the future, providing solid cross regional power support for the implementation of the national dual carbon target and the optimization of regional energy structure. Keywords: power transmission, ultra-high voltage

The silver ultra-high voltage iron towers are about to extend on the Gobi Desert in the Hexi Corridor, and clean electricity from the desert will be continuously sent to cities and industrial parks in Sichuan in the future.Editor/Cheng Liting