The Jiangsu Provincial Electric Power Company has recently released data showing that the power transmission project from the Tianwan Nuclear Power Station has cumulatively delivered over 500 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity to the Yangtze River Delta region.
To put this figure into perspective, 500 billion kilowatt-hours is roughly equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 160 million average three-person households, each using about 3,000 kWh per year.
In environmental terms, this output has effectively saved over 150 million tons of standard coal and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 400 million tons.
Tianwan Nuclear Power Station is currently the world's largest nuclear power base in terms of total installed capacity, both operational and under construction.
The base is planned to house eight million-kilowatt nuclear power units, with units 1 through 6 already in commercial operation.
Once all eight units are operational by 2027, the annual transmission capacity of the Tianwan power export project is expected to increase to 70 billion kilowatt-hours, better meeting the growing energy demands of the Yangtze River Delta region.
On the broader map of clean nuclear energy, Tianwan is not the only significant project.
Just two months ago, the San'ao Nuclear Power Unit 1 in Cangnan, Wenzhou, Zhejiang—the first "Hualong One" reactor in the Yangtze River Delta—completed its 168-hour trial operation and is now ready for commercial use.
When all six Hualong One units are completed, their annual power generation capacity is projected to exceed 54 billion kilowatt-hours, nearly 80% of Wenzhou's total annual electricity consumption.
This will equivalently reduce standard coal consumption by over 16.35 million tons and cut carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 50 million tons annually.
In January of this year, the nuclear island of Unit 1 at the Jiangsu Xuwu Nuclear Heating and Power Plant in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, began concrete pouring, marking the start of its main construction phase.
This facility is designed not only for power generation but also to supply high-quality steam.
Upon completion of its first phase, the project is expected to provide 32.5 million tons of industrial steam annually, with a maximum power generation capacity exceeding 11.5 billion kilowatt-hours.
This will reduce annual standard coal consumption by 7.26 million tons and lower carbon dioxide emissions by 19.6 million tons, supporting the diversification of China's nuclear energy applications beyond just electricity generation.
Beyond nuclear power, the clean energy landscape in the Yangtze River Delta is expanding into broader domains, with wind, solar, and nuclear energy all developing synergistically in this economically vibrant region.
The explosive growth in AI computing demand has made the power consumption of data centers a significant variable.
As one of the national computing power hubs under the "East Data, West Computing" initiative, the Yangtze River Delta is both a region with the strongest demand for computing power and the most complete industrial chain, as well as one of the areas with the highest density of digital economy activity in China.
The massive data processing and model training behind this growth require a stable, clean, and efficient baseload power supply that is both urgent and continuously increasing.
In this context, the stable, round-the-clock output of nuclear power perfectly complements the intermittent nature of wind and solar energy, making it an ideal choice to support the large-scale operation of computing infrastructure.
The cross-provincial flow of clean electricity is a clear testament to the integration of the Yangtze River Delta.
The "Action Plan for Building a Beautiful China Pilot Zone in the Yangtze River Delta," jointly issued by seven departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, proposes the orderly advancement of key projects such as regional clustered wind power, deep-sea offshore wind power, and coastal nuclear power.
A meeting on regional air pollution prevention and control held in May this year also emphasized the need to further strengthen regional cooperation and accelerate the transformation of the energy structure.
As nuclear power and renewable energy sources synchronize within the power grid, and as cross-provincial transmission channels deliver clean electricity precisely to computing hubs, the underlying logic of the Yangtze River Delta's energy landscape is undergoing a fundamental change.
From Tianwan to San'ao, from powering residential life to driving a trillion-yuan computing industry, the narrative of clean energy is shifting from an optional choice for environmental protection to an essential requirement for high-quality development.
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