China's dual-tower solar-thermal plant launched in Gobi Desert

China has inaugurated the world’s first dual-tower solar-thermal power plant in the Gobi Desert, developed by the Three Gorges Corporation. This innovative facility features two 200-meter-high towers surrounded by 27,000 heliostats (mirrors) that concentrate sunlight to generate intense heat, reaching up to 570°C. The heat melts and stores energy in a high-temperature medium, which is then used to produce steam to drive turbines, enabling electricity generation even after sunset or during cloudy conditions. Unlike conventional photovoltaic panels, this solar-thermal system provides stable, dispatchable energy. The dual-tower design enhances efficiency by about 25% compared to single-tower setups, as each tower captures sunlight at different times of the day, and overlapping mirror fields reduce the number of heliostats and construction costs. Situated in the extremely dry but sun-rich Gobi Desert, the plant is part of a larger clean-energy hub that includes extensive solar and wind farms, collectively expected to power around