Hengzhou Cloud and other local Chinese news websites reported on October 25 that construction has started in Heng County for a 2.6GW demonstration project that combines PV systems, wind turbines, and energy storage systems under a single framework. Heng County, which has also been reportedly upgraded administratively to Hengzhou City, is part of China’s Guangxi Province. With a total investment of around RMB 12.8 billion, the demonstration project is touted to be the largest of its kind in the province for 2021.

The entire project is scheduled to enter operation in 2023. Once fully connected to the grid, the project will produce around 3,200GWh of electricity per year. This, in turn, will offset coal consumption by 1.69 million MT per year and CO2 emissions by 6.24 million MT per year. The massive addition of renewable generation capacity provided by the project will also drastically cut down other forms of harmful air pollution including sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx).

The generation and storage assets will spread across 17 towns and districts in the county. The project itself is divided into two sub-projects: (1) the project in Liujing for demonstrating the production of hydrogen using electricity from wind power, solar PV, and energy storage; and (2) the Jasmin project that integrates wind power, solar PV, and energy storage. As a whole, the Hengzhou demonstration project will have a generation capacity of 2.6GW and an energy storage capacity of 400MWh. The investor and developer of the project is Guangxi Longyuan Wind Power Generation, a local subsidiary of China Longyuan Group. The EPC service for the project is provided by China Anneng Group First Engineering Bureau.

According to a recent article on website China Dialogue, guaranteed purchases ensure that Guangxi’s grid system absorbs the local wind and PV generation, while the province’s hydropower plants purchase generation quotas from mostly coal-fired power plants.