Initial appraisal of solar thermal electric energy in Tibet and Xinjiang provinces, People's Republic of China

At the request of USA sponsors Spencer Management Associates (SMA) and Sun lozenge Lab, China's Center for Renewable Energy Development and former Min istry of Electric Power conducted an initial appraisal of the issues involv ed with developing China's first solar thermal electric power plant in the sunbelt regions of Tibet or Xinjiang provinces. The appraisal concerns deve lopment of a large-scale, grid-connected solar trough or tower project capa ble of producing 30 or more megawatts of electricity. Several of the findin gs suggest that Tibet could be a niche market for solar thermal power becau se a solar plant may be the low-cost option relative to other methods of ge nerating electricity. China has studied the concept of a solar thermal power plant for quite some time. In 1992, it completed a pre-feasibility study for a SEGS-type parabo lic trough plant with the aid of Israel's United Development Limited. Becau se the findings were positive, both parties agreed to conduct a full-scale feasibly study. However, due to funding constraints, the study was postpone d. Most recently, Sun lozenge Lab and SMA asked China to broaden the analys is to include tower as well as trough concepts. The findings of this most r ecent investigation, completed in November of 1997, are the subject of this paper. The main conclusions of all studies conducted to date suggest that a region in the proximity of Lhasa, Tibet, offers the best near-term opport unity within China. The opportunities for solar thermal power plants in oth er regions of China were also investigated.