Excellent piece, Atlas. What strikes me most is that China is not simply exploiting geography—it is changing its functional meaning. Remoteness, time-zone lag, intense solar exposure and vast empty land become strategic advantages only because storage, UHV transmission, ecological stabilization and industrial manufacturing are engineered as one system. That suggests a broader point: geography is not necessarily destiny when infrastructure can alter what distance and terrain actually mean. The real strategic asset, then, is not the desert itself, but the conversion architecture that turns otherwise marginal space into dispatchable industrial power.
Another brilliant and compelling article. Every continent has the potential for this type of initiative. There is hope for the planet if it happens in time.
Thank you for the kind words! Indeed, and the Sahara has the greatest potential, as it is the largest hot desert. I wouldn't be surprised if China starts developing projects there in the future.
I continue to wonder why a country like China, authoritarian in nature which allows it to avoid local community objections, isn’t heavily invested in rooftop solar panels placement (distributed generation))? After watching what’s happening in Ukraine, Russia and the Mideast, you’d think that local security and resilience would be a major goal.
China is actually investing heavily in rooftop solar as well, but utility-scale projects offer economies of scale that distributed solar simply can't match. They're cheaper per kWh, easier to integrate with large industrial loads, and can be paired with dedicated UHV transmission, storage and other infrastructure. At the same time, distributed solar does improve resilience, so I wouldn't be surprised if China continues expanding both rather than choosing one over the other.
Thanks! There is some interesting stuff in here that I haven’t heard before. How is China dealing with the inertia problem that solar and wind bring to the grid? How do they avoid what happened on the Iberian peninsula last year? How much does all this transmission, dedesertification and solar/wind farms cost to build out?
Great questions. I'll probably cover those in a follow-up article. In short: China is relying on a combination of UHV transmission lines, hydro, coal, batteries and increasingly grid-forming inverters to maintain grid stability. The build-out is enormously expensive, but Beijing views it as a long-term strategic investment rather than a purely commercial one.
Great, but even strategic investments need to face economic reality. For instance, OBOR is also a strategic move that has economic (and social and foreign relations costs) that most analysts don’t consider either. In the case of these massive solar projects might it just make more sense to build more conventional power plants closer to where the energy will be consumed?
That's true, and China is taking those trade-offs into account. One example is the mirrors used in the project mentioned in the article. They are flat rather than curved, even though curved mirrors are significantly more efficient. China opted for flat mirrors because they are much cheaper to manufacture, install, and maintain.
Excellent piece, Atlas. What strikes me most is that China is not simply exploiting geography—it is changing its functional meaning. Remoteness, time-zone lag, intense solar exposure and vast empty land become strategic advantages only because storage, UHV transmission, ecological stabilization and industrial manufacturing are engineered as one system. That suggests a broader point: geography is not necessarily destiny when infrastructure can alter what distance and terrain actually mean. The real strategic asset, then, is not the desert itself, but the conversion architecture that turns otherwise marginal space into dispatchable industrial power.
I appreciate it! And thanks for the addition.
Another brilliant and compelling article. Every continent has the potential for this type of initiative. There is hope for the planet if it happens in time.
Thank you for the kind words! Indeed, and the Sahara has the greatest potential, as it is the largest hot desert. I wouldn't be surprised if China starts developing projects there in the future.
Thank you. I appreciate the research that goes into this and the time integrating the information then presenting it to us.
No worries! I'm glad you're enjoying these.
Always fascinated at how adept China is at playing the long game
Indeed!
A deep analysis again, now about how China adapts to the challenges of energy strategy. Thank you!
Thanks, Daniel!
Thanks for this succinct article; so much of interest here
Thank you Michael! I’m glad to hear.
I continue to wonder why a country like China, authoritarian in nature which allows it to avoid local community objections, isn’t heavily invested in rooftop solar panels placement (distributed generation))? After watching what’s happening in Ukraine, Russia and the Mideast, you’d think that local security and resilience would be a major goal.
China is actually investing heavily in rooftop solar as well, but utility-scale projects offer economies of scale that distributed solar simply can't match. They're cheaper per kWh, easier to integrate with large industrial loads, and can be paired with dedicated UHV transmission, storage and other infrastructure. At the same time, distributed solar does improve resilience, so I wouldn't be surprised if China continues expanding both rather than choosing one over the other.
Thanks! There is some interesting stuff in here that I haven’t heard before. How is China dealing with the inertia problem that solar and wind bring to the grid? How do they avoid what happened on the Iberian peninsula last year? How much does all this transmission, dedesertification and solar/wind farms cost to build out?
Wind and solar are a small part of the Chinese grid.
Good point, Larry.
Great questions. I'll probably cover those in a follow-up article. In short: China is relying on a combination of UHV transmission lines, hydro, coal, batteries and increasingly grid-forming inverters to maintain grid stability. The build-out is enormously expensive, but Beijing views it as a long-term strategic investment rather than a purely commercial one.
Great, but even strategic investments need to face economic reality. For instance, OBOR is also a strategic move that has economic (and social and foreign relations costs) that most analysts don’t consider either. In the case of these massive solar projects might it just make more sense to build more conventional power plants closer to where the energy will be consumed?
That's true, and China is taking those trade-offs into account. One example is the mirrors used in the project mentioned in the article. They are flat rather than curved, even though curved mirrors are significantly more efficient. China opted for flat mirrors because they are much cheaper to manufacture, install, and maintain.