A giant 'solar power bank' hidden in Gobi Desert, NW China's Xinjiang

Can a solar power plant still generate electricity after the sun goes down?

In Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, rows of linear Fresnel reflectors track the sun, concentrating sunlight into thermal energy and storing it using molten salt. When night falls, this stored heat can be released to continue generating electricity, functioning just like a giant power bank for sunlight.

The integrated project, combining concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) technology, has a total capacity of 1 million kilowatts (kW). It consists of a 900,000-kW PV power station and a 100,000-kW linear Fresnel molten salt CSP plant, whose solar field covers approximately 800,000 square meters.

From tracking sunlight and storing heat to generating power, solar energy is transcending the boundaries of day and night in the Gobi Desert.