China broke ground on an 11-billion dollar renewables project in Inner Mongolia, part of a massive clean-power rollout to achieve the nation’s ambitious climate targets. 

The project, located in the Kubuqi Desert, will have 16 gigawatts (GW) of power capacity when completed, according to a statement by China Three Gorges Group, one of the two builders. It will be able to transmit 40-billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province annually, with more than half from clean power.

The facility is set to become the world’s largest renewable project in a desert region, the company said. It ultimately will include 8GW of solar and 4GW of wind energy, plus 4GW of upgraded coal power to adjust for peak demand, according to Xinhua.

China Three Gorges didn’t give a time frame for the Inner Mongolia project’s completion, but said the current construction phase includes 1GW of solar capacity equipped with energy storage. 

Source: Bloomberg

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