(TibetanReview.net, Sep20’25) – It is not clear how much Tibet or Tibetans are going to benefit from it all, if at all, in real terms, but China has started building on Sep 16 an ultra-high voltage (UHV) power line that will transmit clean energy it generates from various highly controversial green energy projects in occupied Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) over thousands of kilometres to the Greater Bay Area, its most economically dynamic regions, in the south.
The UHV direct current line, with a rated transmission capacity of 10 million kilowatts, is a key cross-provincial power transmission project under the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, with the strongest transmission capacity, the most advanced technology, and the largest investment scale in the world, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Sep 17.
The ±800 kV direct current transmission project involves a total investment of about 53.2 billion yuan (roughly $7.5 billion). It starts in Qamdo (Tibetan: Chamdo), TAR, and ends in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, reported China’s state news agency Xinhua Sep 7, citing Dong Yanle, deputy general manager of the engineering construction department of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd.
The report continued that the project stretches approximately 2,681 kilometres and runs through four provincial-level regions, which include southwest China’s Yunnan province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in South China. It is China’s first UHV power transmission line to cross the Tibetan Plateau, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the hilly terrain of south China.
The line will become fully operational in 2029, with a rated capacity of 10 GW, and will deliver more than 43 billion kWh of electricity annually from the clean energy base in TAR to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the report added.
Dong has said the line will exclusively deliver electricity generated from clean energy sources, adding that the green electricity provided by this line will be equivalent to the consumption of around 12 million tonnes of standard coal a year – while cutting annual carbon dioxide emissions by 33 million tonnes.
Like all major Chinese projects in Tibet, building the powerline requires overcoming enormous geographical and other challenges.
“The project will address world-class challenges such as large-scale clean energy transmission, the application of ultra-high-altitude UHV flexible direct current technology, and construction and operation in extremely complex environments,” Rao Hong, chief scientist of China Southern Power Grid, has said.
The report said 90% of this line will run through mountainous areas. Workers will need to tackle challenges and face risks such as permafrost, geological disasters, environmental protection needs and operations in uninhabited regions. Other challenges include research and development of new direct current power transmission technology and equipment suitable for regions at an altitude of above 4,300 metres.
TAR, one of PRC’s key energy bases, is rich in clean energy sources – such as hydropower, wind power and solar power. It has already built several UHV power transmission lines to send surplus power to many parts of the country, the report said.