The Aksai Huidong New Energy solar farm, China's largest solar power tower project, was connected to the power grid at full capacity on Saturday.
Located in Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County in northwest China's Gansu Province, this cutting-edge project sets itself apart by employing Chinese-initiated pentagonal heliostats, each weighing up to 1.2 tons and covering 48 square meters, to receive focused sunlight through the tower.
Altogether, the project boasts a substantial 750 MW installed gross capacity, including 110 MW of solar thermal power and 640 MW of photovoltaic power, with the latter connected to the grid in mid-August.
To reduce power plant costs and address issues such as fluctuations and intermittent blackouts, the project introduced a solution called intelligent coupling -- the integration of various smart technologies to enhance efficiency and monitoring.
"During the day, while the photovoltaic panels continue to generate electricity, the heliostats installed at the solar thermal area collects sunlight and send it to the surface of the heat absorber on the top of the tower to heat the fused slat for storage of the thermal energy. The energy will be released at night to generate steam, which can drive the generator sets to generate electricity. The mode makes it possible to generate electricity for eight hours stably at night, coping with the fluctuations and intermittency of a single photovoltaic power plant and significantly improving the economy of the power station," said Fang Jun, manager of the project.
The solar farm is expected to generate 1.7 billion kWh of power annually.
China's largest solar power tower project linked to power grid
Bulgarian tourism professionals and business people hailed China's decision to implement a visa-free policy for Bulgarian citizens, expecting the move to significantly boost tourism, trade, and cultural exchanges between the two countries.
China has expanded its visa-free policy to nine additional countries, including eight in Europe, allowing their citizens to enter for up to 30 days without a visa for business, tourism, and other visits starting Nov. 30, 2024.
The policy now includes Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Malta, Estonia, Latvia and Japan, alongside other 29 nations already benefiting from China's open-door approach.
Premio Travel, an international travel company in Bulgaria, has been organizing Bulgarian tour groups to China since 2018. Its manager Emil Abazov said China has become one of the most popular tourist destinations.
Abazov, whose company sent over 900 tourists to China this year, welcomed China's visa-free policy, anticipating a significant increase in tourist arrivals from Bulgaria.
"This, in general, was a very, very smart decision and Bulgarians, some of them, are afraid about when it is a destination with a visa. So they are afraid because they have to go to the embassy, they have to speak foreign language, probably at the interview, etc. With the visa free policy, I'm sure it will be (attract) even much more [Bulgarian visitors to China]," said Emil Abazov.
Krastio V. Belev, chief expert of the Bulgarian Chinese Business Development Association, was one of the first Bulgarian students to study in China back in 1987. He said China's visa exemption will not only boost China's tourism and economic development but also promote personnel exchanges, allowing more foreigners to gain a deeper understanding of China.
"But what is more important to me is that people from Europe have to visit China, see China firsthand. It's a very diverse and beautiful country, very safe, very clean, very friendly people and very modern cities. It's a mixture of tradition and modern," said Krastio V. Belev.
In the third quarter of 2024, foreigners made 8.186 million inbound trips to China, up 48.8 percent year on year. Of that number, 4.885 million trips were facilitated by the visa-free policy, up 78.6 percent year on year, according to data from the National Immigration Administration released in mid-October.
Bulgaria's tourism, business sectors welcome China's visa-free policy
