【强国进行时·鄂尔多斯】黄沙披绿装 绿电富万家：鄂尔多斯探索沙海与能源协同发展新路[Powerful Nation in Progress · Ordos] Yellow Sand Turns Green, Green Energy Benefits Ten Thousand Households: Ordos Explores a New Path for the Coordinated Development of Deserts and Energy

Standing on the observation deck of the photovoltaic base in Dalate Banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and taking in the view, the "Junma" power station—the world's largest photovoltaic panel-shaped power station—spreads along the undulating sand dunes. Beneath the panels, sand willows and tamarisk stubbornly emerge from the sand, while in the distance, wind turbines slowly turn in the autumn breeze. The land underfoot, once called the "Sea of Death," is undergoing a green transformation: generating electricity on the panels, controlling sand beneath them, and planting between the panels—the former yellow sands are turning into a "green bank."

On the south bank of the Yellow River's "several-bend" area, the Kubuqi Desert stretches across the northern edge of the Ordos Plateau. Today, a "Photovoltaic Great Wall" integrating "ecology, green electricity, industry, innovation, and wealth for the people" is rising on the northern edge of the desert. Together with the 420-kilometer bordering forest belt, it forms a "double-layer protective network," creating a three-dimensional barrier against wind and sand, while also allowing renewable energy development and sand control efforts to complement each other in the same space.

In Zhaojun Town, Dalate Banner, Ordos, the 'Photovoltaic Great Wall' sand control belt in the Kubuqi Desert is spectacular. Relying on the construction of the 'Shagehuang' renewable energy base, Ordos is focusing on building the 'Photovoltaic Great Wall' sand control belt in the Kubuqi Desert, promoting complementary and win-win outcomes between ecological construction and renewable energy development. Currently, the region has built a photovoltaic installed capacity of 12.84 million kilowatts, achieving sand control over 800,000 mu; projects under construction total 26.95 million kilowatts, and two 'Shagehuang' base plans with a proposed photovoltaic installed capacity of 16 million kilowatts are awaiting approval. Once fully completed, they could achieve sand control over 2 million mu through photovoltaics.

Li Kai, director of the Comprehensive Support Center of the Dalate Banner Energy Bureau, explained that beneath the panels, sand-tolerant plants such as baical skullcap, licorice shrub, and desert willow are planted. The photovoltaic panels provide shade, block wind, and reduce water evaporation, creating conditions for the plants to survive. The local area also treats drainage water from coal mines into reclaimed water, which is supplied to hundreds of thousands of mu of desert land through water storage pools and drip irrigation systems, allowing the challenges of 'sand control' and 'water usage' to be addressed simultaneously in the same system, significantly improving the survival rate of seedlings.

The pulse of energy is not limited to the desert. In the Tuke Industrial Park of Wushen Banner, Ordos City, the green transformation of modern coal chemical industry is also thriving. Zhongtian Hechuang is constructing the country’s first demonstration project that integrates wind and solar green hydrogen into coal chemical production, which can reduce carbon emissions by 720,000 tons annually, providing a new reference path for coupling traditional high-energy-consuming industries with green electricity and green hydrogen.

From 'sand at the bottom of the bowl' to 'green as far as the eye can see,' from 'sandstorm covering the sky' to 'photovoltaic blue ocean,' as renewable energy changes the traditional development model, past ecological problems are being transformed into the code for high-quality development. The exploration in Ordos shows that deserts are not only objects in need of governance but can also become important carriers for energy transition and industrial upgrading, with ecological and economic benefits fully achievable simultaneously.

[Source: Global Times]

[Editor: Xiao Neng]