A county in northern China, once reliant on agriculture and livestock, is now being reshaped by new energy infrastructure. In Huade County, located in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia, solar panels stretch across the grasslands like a blue ocean, while wind turbines spin steadily under the clear sky.
Data from 2025 underscores the scale of this transformation: the county's total installed capacity for wind and solar power has reached 2.3 gigawatts, doubling from the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, with 18 wind-solar-storage projects now completed.
From Generation to Storage
Inside the Huade County Industrial Park, an unassuming energy storage station operates around the clock. This is China's first grid-side independent storage demonstration project combining electrochemical and hydrogen storage technologies. Its connection to the grid has given Huade a distinctive position in the national new energy landscape.
"Its significance goes beyond storage itself; it explores a new path for the coordination of multiple storage technologies," said project leader Liu Zhihua. Electrochemical storage responds quickly, suitable for short-term adjustments, while hydrogen storage offers large capacity and long duration, ideal for balancing across days or weeks. Combining them provides the grid with both a "power bank" and a "reservoir."
Previously, Huade faced the challenge of generating green electricity but being unable to transmit, consume, or fully utilize it, leading to frequent curtailment of wind and solar power. The implementation of this storage project is systematically addressing that issue.
"When wind power was abundant, the grid couldn't absorb it, and we had to watch resources go to waste. Now with storage, we can 'store' the excess electricity and release it when needed," Liu explained. Storage acts like a "time machine," shifting idle electricity to the most critical times.
From Planting Trees to Creating Forests
The 2.3 GW installed capacity reflects Huade's progression from fragmented projects to a system-level integration of its new energy industry. At the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan, wind and solar projects were scattered. By 2025, major projects like the Mengneng 1 GW wind-solar-storage facility and the Xingyuan independent storage project have been sequentially launched, creating a clustered, multi-energy complementary landscape.
"Previously, we were planting trees; now, we are creating a forest," said Huade County Party Secretary Xue Fengqing. The county is moving from scattered deployment to system integration, from simple capacity expansion to a coordinated generation, storage, and consumption model. Building on this foundation, Huade aims to double its new energy installed capacity by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
Acting County Mayor Wang Yongsheng emphasized that doubling is not just about numbers but about higher quality development. "The prerequisite for doubling is a simultaneous increase in consumption capacity. We are advancing source-grid-load-storage integration, coordinating generation, consumption, storage, and the grid to achieve local green electricity consumption, avoiding a focus on generation over usage."
Attracting Projects with Green Electricity
The development logic Huade has explored in practice is to exchange resources for industries and attract projects with green electricity. Previously, investment attraction relied on traditional methods like land and tax incentives. Now, green electricity resources have become the most compelling "new calling card."
The county is revitalizing its land and grid resources, leveraging its wind and solar advantages to cultivate a clean energy industry cluster. It is accelerating the implementation and production of wind-solar projects, independent storage, and source-grid-load-storage integration projects, continuously expanding green power supply and enhancing local consumption capacity.
"The new energy industry must accelerate its pace and build an ecosystem," said Huade County Development and Reform Commission Director Guo Guangbing. The goal of doubling installed capacity by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan implies annual power generation exceeding 6 billion kilowatt-hours, equivalent to saving 1.8 million tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 5 million tons.
"New energy and the digital economy are a perfect match," Xue Fengqing noted. The computing power industry is a major electricity consumer with a strong demand for green electricity. Huade's abundant wind and solar resources and clean power supply capacity provide a unique advantage for developing the computing sector. The county is currently drafting a specialized plan for a computing power park, aiming to establish "green energy plus computing services" as a new industry identity.
"In the past, we relied on resources for survival; now, we use resources to exchange for industries," Xue said. Huade is pursuing a "chain development" path—using green electricity as a core attraction to draw upstream and downstream industries, while proactively planning for future sectors like computing power and the low-altitude economy.
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