HOHHOT -- Inner Mongolia Energy Group has started constructing a large-scale new energy storage power station in the Ulan Buh Desert, the eighth-largest in China, to better harness new energy power for grid connection.

Designed with a capacity of 605,000 kilowatts, the project is the largest single energy storage power station under construction in the country. The energy storage station can help send a stable supply of electricity from photovoltaic power facilities to the grid.

According to the energy bureau in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in addition to the economic benefit of producing green electricity, the new energy storage power station built in the Ulan Buh Desert hinterland with photovoltaic power generating facilities has ecological and social benefits for combatting desertification.

The project, which costs over 2.1 billion yuan ($295 million), is expected to be connected to the grid by the end of this year.

Spanning 15 million mu (1 million hectares), the Ulan Buh Desert has about one-third of its area distributed in Dengkou county, Bayannuur city. This city boasts a rich sunshine resource of over 3,000 hours a year.

The energy storage power station built in Dengkou boasts photovoltaic power generating facilities with an annual capacity of generating 3.16 billion kWh of electricity, contributing to carbon dioxide emission reduction by 2.75 million tonnes annually while making ecological treatment of about 44,600 mu sand area.