On the plateau with an altitude of 4,000 to 4,600 meters above sea level in west Sichuan Province, huge PV modules are arranged into a neat phalanx, which looks like a vast blue ocean, shining in the midday sun. Here is Yajiang county, Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan Province, the place where the world's largest and highest altitude hydro - PV complementary project - Kela PV Power Station – is under construction.

The ground clearance of the PV modules of the Kela PV Power Station of Yalong Hydro is 1.8 meters, which can ensure the needs of vegetation growth, as well as the grazing space of cattle and sheep.

What are the advantages of hydro and PV complementation? Hydro-PV complementarity is a strong combination of hydropower stations and PV power stations, which complement each other, and hydro-PV power stations can jointly form a safe and stable green energy supply system. PV power plants can only generate electricity during the day, and bad weather can cause power instability. Hydropower plants, however, can generate electricity day and night, which can make up for the instability of PV power generation. Hydro and PV power plants can supplement each other to eliminate fluctuations and thus make a stable power supply. When PV power generation is sufficient, the hydropower plant can release less water to reduce power generation, and store water in the reservoir until the peak of electricity consumption. It can release these additionally-stored water to generate more power to meet the peak demand.

"The hydro-PV complementary development model of Kela PV Power Station can be adjusted daily through hydropower stations to promote new energy consumption. At the same time, through annual complementary output of hydropower and PV power generation, the utilization rate of outgoing electricity line and comprehensive power generation efficiency can be improved. The Kela photovoltaic power station has for the first time increased the scale of hydro-PV complementary power development to the level of 1000 MW, which has a good demonstration effect." Li Sheng, President of the China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute, pointed out.

Once the Kela PV Power Station is completed and put into operation, Yalong Hydro will raise its total installed capacity of green, clean and renewable energy to more than 2 GW. Once completed, the Yalong River Basin Green and Clean Energy Demonstration Base of Hydro, Wind and Photovoltaic Power Stations will be able to generate about 300 billion kilowatt-hours per year, enough for 100 million households and capable of generating trillions of RMB yuan in GDP. It can also reduce coal consumption by more than 90 million tons per year and cut down carbon dioxide emissions by about 250 million tons.

Key Figures of Kela Photovoltaic

Total Investment: Over 5.3 billion RMB yuan

Installed Capacity: 1000 MW

Annual Utilization Hour: 1,735 hours

Average Annual Output: 2 billion kilowatt-hours

Electricity Generation Equivalent to Reducing Coal Consumption by over 600,000 tons per year

Reducing Carbon Dioxide Emissions by over 1.6 million tons.