On the morning of June 10, at an altitude of 4,650 meters on the snowy plateau, the groundbreaking ceremony was held for the world's highest-altitude concentrated solar power (CSP) project, the Xizang Kaitou Amdo Tushuo CSP Project, which is being executed as general contractor by Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited (Northwest Institute).

The Xizang Kaitou Amdo Tushuo CSP Project is located approximately 17.5 kilometers east of Pana Town in Amdo County, Nagqu City, Xizang. The project site lies at an elevation of between 4,645 and 4,657 meters, with an installed capacity of 100 megawatts. The project adopts molten salt tower technology, with a total heliostat field light-collecting area of 800,000 square meters, an 8-hour thermal energy storage system, and binary molten salt as the heat storage and heat transfer medium. Upon completion, the project will generate an average annual power output of 255.08 million kilowatt-hours, with an annual utilization of approximately 2,551 hours. It will save 60,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 165,000 tons per year, providing stable clean electricity to Amdo County and surrounding areas, injecting strong green momentum into the Xizang power grid, and offering valuable experience and solutions for the large-scale development of clean energy in cold, high-altitude regions.

At the construction site of the Amdo CSP project, the weather is complex and the climatic conditions are harsh: oxygen content is less than 60% of that at plain level, the average annual temperature is minus 2.8°C, and strong winds are constant. The project also faces multiple challenges such as a weak power grid and difficult transportation. The Northwest Institute performance team is focusing on core technical bottlenecks—including the design, construction, operation and maintenance monitoring, and safety performance improvement of tower CSP stations under complex conditions of ultra-high altitude, severe cold, high seismic intensity, and strong winds—and is fully leveraging its advantages in planning and design leadership and its general contracting management experience in CSP projects. With the goal of achieving continuous and stable operation of CSP units at minus 40°C and building a benchmark CSP project on the snowy plateau, the team is contributing the strength of the Northwest Institute to the high-quality economic and social development and green energy transition of the Amdo region in Xizang.