China's Zhangbei Flexible Direct Current (DC) power grid officially went online on Monday. The facility is expected to greatly bolster the country's effort to provide its cities with cleaner electricity through the increased utilization of renewable energy sources.
The newly activated renewable energy power grid, which started construction back in February 2018, is capable of transmitting up to 14.1 billion kWh of clean electricity to the country's capital city of Beijing. It was partially built to meet the expected power demand of the city's first Winter Olympic Games. With its activation, the city will become the first Olympic Games in history to be fully powered by electricity taken from renewable energy sources.
China invested a total of 12.5 billion yuan or roughly $1.77 billion to develop and construct the world's first renewable energy-based flexible direct current power transmission system. The Zhangbei power grid is made up of miles of transmission lines and four converter stations located in Beijing, Chengde, Zhangjiakou, and Zhangbei. The areas covered by the grid have plenty of access to clean energy sources, including massive wind and solar farms.
The renewable energy-sourced power that will be transmitted through the grid is roughly equal to the power produced by 4.9 million of coal. According to the State Grid Corp of China, the addition of the grid to the country's power infrastructure is expected to reduce its overall carbon dioxide emission by more than 12.8 million tons.
Apart from sourcing electricity from renewable sources, the Zhangbei power grid is equipped with the latest energy technologies. This includes high-level smart operation systems and cutting-edge management systems, which all provide a more stable power output.
Analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance have pointed out that the Zhangbei grid represents a massive step forward in China's ability to deliver renewable energy to its major metropolitan areas. The project is also expected to open up new opportunities in deregulated sales of renewable power to other parts of the country.
Data from the National Energy Administration shows that China's installed capacity of renewable energy sources had grown by over 9 percent at the end of 2019. Energy generated from wind projects increased by 14 percent year-on-year, while those from solar farms surged by 17.3 percent year-on-year. Over the same period, China generated a total of 2.04 trillion kWh of electricity from its renewable energy projects. This represented about 27.9 percent of its total electricity output for the year, a 1.2 percent increase when compared to 2018.
