China's 'Great Wall' of Solar Power

The 133km long and 25km wide solar wall in Inner Mongolia will produce enough electricity to meet Beijing's annual needs.

From the 7th to the 3rd century BC, Chinese dynasties built the 21,196km-long Great Wall. Two millennia later, China is now creating another wall, aimed at providing abundant solar energy, according to Popular Science .

Workers install photovoltaic panels in the Kubuqi desert. (Photo: China Daily)

Built in the Kubuqi Desert along the southern edge of the Yellow River in northern China, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Great Wall of Solar Power will stretch 133 kilometers (83 miles) long and 25 kilometers (15 miles) wide. China hopes the wall will provide 180 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per year by 2030. That's enough to meet the energy needs of Beijing, which currently uses about 135.8 billion kWh of electricity per year, according to Ordos Energy, the company behind the project.

However, some of the electricity generated will benefit the local community, according to Li Kai, an official in the Dalad Banner power sector, a smaller division of Inner Mongolia. The new transmission line will transport 48 billion kWh of electricity from the installation site to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei each year. 'All projects are invested by state-owned companies and local governments do not need to provide funding. In total, about 50,000 jobs will be created ,' Li said.

In addition to the electricity generation and employment opportunities, the project will also have a positive conservation impact. The Yellow River is undergoing a process of desertification, in which the river basin slowly degrades to desert-like conditions. The installation will help to remediate 27 million hectares of land in the region by providing shade and reducing evaporation. The panels will also act as windbreaks, helping to protect the surrounding environment from soil erosion.

The shaded area offers opportunities for growing crops. The project will plant about 2,400 hectares of crops to address the more desert-like areas of the Great Solar Wall. The local government is also committed to creating a symbiotic relationship between economic development and ecological conservation.

Large-scale green energy installations, whether wind, solar or a combination of the two, are becoming increasingly common as the world looks to cut carbon emissions. The trend is also playing out in the United States.

Installing photovoltaic panels also comes with many environmental threats including habitat disruption and increased bird strikes, but scientists and engineers are looking at ways to increase pollinator crops around installations, creating wildlife corridors.