China produces more clean energy than any other country. Now it's rolling out an ultra-high-voltage grid to match – will its strategy of going

'A bullet train for power': China's ultra-high-voltage electricity grid

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2024-11-15 15:30:03

China produces more clean energy than any other country. Now it's rolling out an ultra-high-voltage grid to match – will its strategy of going big pay off?

In a sleepy village on the fringes of Shanghai, China's megacity of 25 million people, a hulking green building surrounded by a labyrinth of electric wires and poles stands in contrast with the landscape around it. Surrounding this beast, not far from the coastline of Hangzhou Bay, the vast funnel-shaped inlet of the East China Sea, are an array of vegetable plots, winding country paths and a tranquil canal.

This oddly out-of-place building is the Fengxian Converter Station, a hub for receiving electricity that has travelled some 1,900km (1,200 miles) before it is routed to power Shanghai's homes, offices and factories. At the other end of the transmission line lies the Xiangjiaba Hydropower Station in south-west China, which harnesses the energy of the mighty Jinsha River, the upper stretches of the Yangtze River.

The Xiangjiaba-Shanghai transmission link, which went into service in 2010, is one of China's first ultra-high-voltage (UHV) projects – a technology designed to deliver electricity over long distances. It spearheaded an era that would see the country build a vast network of UHV infrastructure, dubbed the "bullet trains for power", to send electricity generated from hydro and coal in remote regions to populous cities.