Mega solar, wind power project starts construction in North China desert

BEIJING -- A mega solar and wind power base kicked off construction in China's seventh-largest desert on Wednesday.

With an overall installed capacity of 16 million kW, the project is the world's largest power generation base of its kind in desert areas.

Located in the Kubuqi Desert in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the project will be developed by China Three Gorges Corporation and Inner Mongolia Energy Group.

Once completed, the base will be able to transfer about 40 billion kWh of electricity to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region every year.

Over half of the 40-billion-kWh power will be clean energy -- which is equivalent to saving about 6 million tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide by about 16 million tonnes.