Transforming the Desert: Youth Pioneers Harness Solar Power in the Taklamakan Desert

In the Ku’erle Shangku High-tech Zone, located on the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert, a group of pioneers, averaging 33 years old, is transforming the destiny of the Gobi Desert with a solar photovoltaic array of 1.3 million kilowatts. They are sketching a vibrant and scenic ecological picture in the “Sea of Death.”

“All I see is desert,” exclaimed Han Haoliang, the leader of the youth task force and project manager, upon his first arrival in this sandy expanse. A post-90s generation member, he remarked that their goal is to conquer not just the 30-kilometer desolate area but also the vast moving sands.

The Tarim Photovoltaic Power Generation Project, undertaken by China Construction’s East China Company, is a key initiative for exploring photovoltaic desert reclamation in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and a landmark project in China’s new energy sector.

Situated deep within the desert, the project is approximately 30 kilometers from the nearest municipal road, with no established routes along the way. Han’s first challenge was clear: “We must first build a road and then address the issues of water, electricity, and connectivity.” However, during initial explorations, Han and his colleagues struggled for three hours in off-road vehicles across sand dunes, only to find that GPS indicated they were still in the same place. After extensive exploration, production manager Fu Daolong led the team in utilizing satellite imagery and drone mapping technology to accurately locate geological hard layers. They innovated a “Three-Part Road Construction in the Desert” method—first stripping away 30 centimeters of loose sand, then using geotextiles for compaction, and finally laying down crushed stone aggregate for construction.

Another daunting challenge arose from the ecological environment—vegetation coverage in the project area is less than 1%, and local shifting sand dunes are advancing at a rate of three meters per year, swallowing oases. “Sandstorms occur almost daily here,” Han recalled, sharing one unforgettable experience. During an attempt to drive three off-road vehicles into the project area, they were suddenly hit by a fierce sandstorm, leaving two vehicles stuck in sand pits. “Despite the efforts of over a dozen people, we couldn’t free them,” he said, explaining that they had to rely on the remaining vehicle to escape the desert. The next day, when they returned with heavy off-road rescue equipment, they discovered that “two vehicles were almost buried halfway in sand.”

High temperatures posed another significant challenge. The team arrived during the peak of summer, with surface temperatures soaring to 60 degrees Celsius, causing frequent equipment failures, not to mention the impact on personnel. “In that moment, I understood the principle of an air fryer,” Han remarked, “with the blazing sun overhead and the sand below radiating heat, it felt like being inside a giant steamer, making dehydration a real threat.” Fellow team member Zhang Baojun also vividly remembered the extreme heat: “Once, a construction worker wore rubber-soled shoes on-site, and by the end of the day, his shoes had completely melted due to the heat.”

Despite the harsh conditions, this young team did not back down. At the construction mobilization meeting, Han resolutely declared, “We are not just building an ordinary photovoltaic panel area; we are creating a model project for ecological management.”

In August 2024, the first photovoltaic pile foundation construction faced a significant hurdle. “This area is a shifting sand zone, more ‘active’ than we imagined. Piling in loose sand presents numerous challenges.” To find the most suitable piling method, Han led the team in a five-day testing phase, experimenting with dozens of different approaches. Ultimately, they successfully developed a water injection sand stabilization technique, which involved installing a water tank on the drilling rig and using a pressure device to spray water from the drill head while simultaneously pouring concrete, keeping the pile construction time under ten minutes. When the first row of piles stood firm in the sand, project technician Lü Yongquan excitedly grabbed a handful of sand and exclaimed, “Look! We’ve finally succeeded!”

However, new challenges quickly followed. Lü shared, “In addition to the challenges of pile foundation construction, underground investigations faced significant difficulties. The strong corrosive saline-alkali layer underground means standard galvanized steel piles last less than five years.” The project team held onto the belief that “no difficulty is insurmountable!” and, through continuous exploration, they developed a four-layer protective system—using thick-walled steel pipes with a hot-dip galvanized layer increased to 86μm, ensuring thorough pre-treatment to remove rust and oil, increasing zinc liquid temperature, and carefully selecting cooling speed and medium to avoid cracks and uneven thicknesses in the galvanized layer. Lü stated, “This ‘composite armor’ pile foundation can withstand tests equivalent to 20 years of corrosive environments.”

Moreover, based on the project’s geographical coordinates and sunlight conditions, the team designed an optimized scheme for the photovoltaic panel tilt angle and support height, maximizing solar energy absorption efficiency. By conducting precise calculations and simulations, they ensured that the panels receive optimal sunlight exposure throughout different seasons and weather conditions. Lü added, “We also considered local environmental factors like wind speed and precipitation to ensure the stability and durability of the support structures. This plan not only enhances energy output but also reduces long-term maintenance costs, laying a solid foundation for the project’s sustainable development.”

Weaving the “Photovoltaic +” Ecological Chapter, Uyghur youth Maimaiti Aili Tursun Tohiti is one of the first team members to join the project, witnessing how the photovoltaic array is changing the landscape of his hometown. “When such a large area of solar panels is erected, the eyes of the villagers light up,” the post-90s engineer remarked. During project construction, facing a massive scale of personnel and machinery, the management team innovatively implemented a “dual-core grid” management model. Team member Li Bingzhuo explained, “We divided the 200,000 square meter work area into several responsibility grids, each with dual leaders for ‘technology + safety,’ like installing latitude and longitude lines in the desert.” Notably, the project team adopted a “template first” strategy. By creating actual templates, they intuitively demonstrated quality standards and final outcomes, ensuring that all construction teams and phases adhered to the same quality requirements for consistency.

Once the photovoltaic panel installation was complete, the construction tasks did not end there. The team initiated the construction of grass grids. They used dry straw to create 1.44 square meter grids in the desert, filling the surrounding loose sand into the grids and compacting it to form a series of windbreak walls. Li Bingzhuo remarked, “These straw grids effectively reduce wind speed, minimize dune movement, protect the soil under the photovoltaic panels, and create favorable conditions for desert vegetation planting.”

In the future, as the project fully connects to the power grid, it will annually replace about 620,000 tons of standard coal, significantly reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Meanwhile, the shading effect of the photovoltaic panels will gradually manifest, allowing drought-resistant plants such as Haloxylon and Apocynum to thrive underneath, creating a three-dimensional ecological model of “power generation above, planting between, and restoration below.” This will strongly promote the local green and low-carbon transformation. As Han shared with his colleagues at the completion ceremony, “What we planted is not just photovoltaic panels, but the seeds of ecology, hoping they will flourish across the vast sandy sea.”