Receiver delivered for 350 MW PowerChina CSP project at Wutumeiren in Golmud

In early October, the large tower solar thermal receiver manufactured by Bluestar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Co., Ltd (abbreviated as BCMC) completed manufacturing and inspection at its Liaocheng, Shandong production base and was officially shipped to Qinghai for delivery to the Yichu Golmud 350MW tower solar thermal power project.

The project is located at Wutumeiren in Golmud City, Haixi Prefecture, Qingqinghai Province. It adopts a “three-tower, one-machine” configuration with 14 hours of molten salt thermal storage, making it the world’s largest tower CSP project in terms of both single-unit capacity and energy storage scale. The absorber tube panels supplied for this project are the largest of their kind in China. The successful shipment marks a significant step forward in the domestic production of core equipment for large-capacity tower-type solar thermal power in China.

Tackling Core Technologies, Overcoming Manufacturing Challenges

The receiver is a core component of tower CSP plants, directly determining the plant’s power generation efficiency, operational stability, and service life.

The equipment operates under harsh conditions, subject to multiple challenges including high heat flux impact, thermal cycling, and high-temperature molten salt corrosion. The fabrication of the extra-large absorber tube panels became the top priority in tackling the project.

Using BCMC’s Liaocheng, Shandong industrialized manufacturing base as the platform, the project team focused on the development task of the receiver, tackling key challenges one by one—including forming of extra-large tube panels, high-precision welding of special alloys, and prediction of operational deformation—thereby streamlining the entire chain from process planning and material control through production manufacturing to quality acceptance.

Strict quality control was implemented throughout the equipment development process. Pressure tests, non-destructive testing, and performance verification were successively completed to ensure that all indicators met the operational requirements under extreme conditions. The Liaocheng base achieved “investment, project initiation, and production capacity formation within the same year,” establishing normalized and stable delivery capabilities. It has built a professional receiver production line in China, providing strong support for BCMC to undertake large-scale solar thermal equipment orders and advance industrialized batch manufacturing.

Expanding into the CSP Sector, Supporting the Green Transition

Drawing on its profound heritage in special equipment development and manufacturing, BCMC is actively expanding into the molten salt energy storage and solar thermal equipment sector.

The implementation of this project will effectively smooth out fluctuations in new energy output and support the construction of a new-type power system. Going forward, BCMC will continue to iterate its core technologies, empowering the green energy transition and contributing to the achievement of China’s “dual carbon” goals.

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