The vast desert and barren areas in China are evolving from ecological shortcomings to key battlefields for energy transformation. By 2025, under the strong impetus of the national “dual carbon” goals and energy security strategy, zero-carbon parks and virtual power plants will become the core fulcrums for this area to tap into the trillion-yuan market. Policy dividends have been released intensively. Ningxia has successfully aggregated 3.79 million kilowatts of load, and the Gobi Desert in Gansu has achieved a coordinated development of photovoltaic sand control and an annual reduction of 800,000 tons of CO?. How can enterprises seize policy opportunities, break through technological bottlenecks and gain the upper hand in this “green new continent” of deserts and barren lands? The answer lies precisely in this profound revolution of energy and ecology.

01 Policy support: Strongly driven by national strategy

National-level pilot projects set the direction
In June 2025, the National Energy Administration’s “Notice on the First Batch of Pilot Projects for the Construction of a New Power System” listed virtual power plants as one of the seven core directions, clearly requiring that “a number of virtual power plants be newly built or renovated in accordance with local conditions”, with a focus on supporting sandy, desert and barren areas to enhance their regulation capacity by aggregating distributed resources, and encouraging participation in the power market and carbon trading.

The special planning for the desert and barren land has been implemented
The “Photovoltaic Desertification Control Plan for the Three North Deserts, Gobi and Wastelands (2025-2030)” has been officially released, with the goal of adding 253 million kilowatts of photovoltaic capacity, treating 10.1 million mu of sandy land, providing large-scale land and green electricity foundation for zero-carbon parks, and mandatorly requiring coordination with ecological restoration.

Breakthroughs and innovations in market-oriented mechanisms
The Northwest Energy Regulatory Bureau has issued the “Short-Term Balance Market Rules for Supporting Power Sources in Sand, Desert and Wasteland”, allowing energy storage and other entities to participate in the market in a simplified way of “reporting volume without quoting price”, and opening up the revenue path for virtual power plants.

Priority will be given to ensuring funds and grid connection
The state’s ultra-long-term special Treasury bonds will give priority to supporting eligible pilot projects in desert and barren land. Projects adopting the “new generation coal-fired power and new energy joint operation” model can be granted priority grid connection rights.

02 Current development status: Demonstration and leadership, initial scale emerging

■ Virtual power plant: The aggregation capacity has been significantly enhanced

Ningxia leads the country: It has built a virtual power plant platform, successfully aggregated 3.79 million kilowatts of adjustable load, and formed a “three-layer two-level” architecture, with outstanding regulation capacity.

Deepening of technology application: Large-scale deployment of enterprise systems such as State Grid NARI has been achieved, but policy breakthroughs are still needed for cross-provincial coordination.

■ Zero-carbon Park: Practice of Ecological Energy Integration

The Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province is building a complete industrial chain: promoting the integration of “wind, solar, thermal, storage and hydrogen network”, the Jinta 10,000-mu photovoltaic sand control project has achieved an annual reduction of 800,000 tons of CO?, and high-power components such as Trina Solar have improved efficiency.

Kubuqi Model Innovation: By adopting flexible support technology (reducing steel usage by 26% and pile foundation by 45%), it effectively strikes a balance between ecological protection and cost control, and the initial results of “power generation on the plate and restoration under the plate” have been achieved.

03 Core Pain Point: Challenges Need to be urgently addressed

■ Technical Challenges

A high proportion of new energy leads to insufficient inertia in the power grid, triggering wideband oscillations. Resources on the load side are scattered and the response efficiency is low.

High power rationing rate: In some areas of Northwest China, the power rationing rate has reached 30-40%, with extreme cases exceeding 80%. Coupled with the low electricity price (0.1-0.2 yuan per kilowatt-hour), the project’s revenue is under pressure.

■ Insufficient coordination between ecology and policies

The ecological environment in sandy land is fragile. The construction of power stations is prone to damage the soil crust and aggravate wind erosion. The local compensation mechanism and cross-provincial trading rules have not yet been unified.

The business model of virtual power plants relies on policy subsidies, and its marketization sustainability remains to be verified.

04 Unique Advantages: Resource endowment and synergy potential

■ Outstanding resource endowment

The Shage Wasteland area covers 26.81% of the country’s land area, with an annual sunshine duration of over 3,200 hours, making it the best photovoltaic resource area in the country.

Low land cost: There is a vast amount of unused land, which is suitable for large-scale contiguous development.

■ Synergy and efficiency enhancement of ecology and energy

Photovoltaic arrays can lower the surface temperature, reduce water evaporation and promote vegetation recovery (such as the Kubuqi project).

The integrated model of “photovoltaic + sand control + agriculture and animal husbandry” creates triple benefits of green electricity, carbon sinks and agriculture.

05 Enterprise Opportunities: Innovation and Market Breakthroughs

■ Technological innovation drives cost reduction and efficiency improvement

Grid-forming energy storage: The key to addressing the pain points of weak grid support (such as Trina Energy Storage’s -35°C to 55°C wide temperature range system).

Flexible supports and intelligent tracking technology: Increase power generation by over 10% and reduce steel consumption by 30% (such as the “Suiying” support of One New Energy).

■ Model innovation and market services

Virtual power plant operators: Focusing on load aggregation, participating in peak shaving auxiliary services, electricity spot trading and green certificate trading (drawing on the Ningxia model).

Zero-carbon park comprehensive service provider: Offering an integrated “source-grid-load-storage” solution and expanding value-added services such as carbon footprint certification (refer to the lithium battery pilot project in Gansu).

06 Future Trends: Policy deepening, technology integration, and market activation

Policy deepening
Desert and barren land will become the main battlefield for new energy during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and the comprehensive policy package (land, taxation, and consumption) for pilot cities will be accelerated to be introduced.

Technology integration
Ai-driven virtual power plants (such as the prediction of the Zhejiang large model) and grid-forming energy storage have become essential needs for grid connection.

Market mechanism
Green certificates and CCers have been restarted to activate carbon benefits, and cross-provincial spot trading channels have been expanded.

Ecological synergy
The forestry and grassland department takes the lead in setting standards for photovoltaic sand control and promotes the standardization of “grass-photovoltaic complementarity” and “agriculture-photovoltaic complementarity”.

07 Summary

Zero-carbon parks and virtual power plants in the sandy, barren and desolate areas are currently in a period of overlapping policy dividends and technological breakthroughs: in the short term, it is necessary to overcome the contradiction between high power rationing rates and ecological protection (such as flexible supports + intelligent operation and maintenance). In the medium and long term, relying on the aggregation capabilities of virtual power plants and the premium of green electricity (such as the integration of hydrogen, ammonia and alcohol), a four-dimensional revenue closed loop of “power generation – sand control – carbon sink – industry” can be achieved. Enterprises should focus on grid-forming technologies, eco-friendly designs and cross-regional transaction capabilities to seize the commanding heights of the incremental market.