SPIC builds 600 MW of high-altitude solar in China

SPIC said it completed the pilot solar power plant near the town of Zhengdou, in China’s Sichuan province. The Xingchuan Demonstration Photovoltaic Power Station is the first unit of a 600 MW project that SPIC is building in the area at a planned cost of CNY 3.2 billion ($444.2 million).

The company said the pilot facility was built after testing 127 different plant designs. It noted that its altitude ranges from 3,900 meters to 4,500 meters above sea level.

SPIC plans to complete the solar park by September and said that it will become a technological benchmark for all future solar parks built at high altitudes.

China Daily has reported that the plant was originally designed to have a capacity of 400 MW.