Solar project twice the size of Paris to produce green fuels

A groundbreaking green hydrogen and methanol project has officially been launched in Xinjiang, northwest China. The facility will be powered by what is set to become the world’s second-largest solar power installation.

The project will include 13.5 GW of solar capacity—second only to the Gonghe Talatan Solar Power Plant—and will support the annual production of around 3.6 million tonnes of methanol using approximately 675,000 tonnes of hydrogen.

To accommodate the development, about 230 square kilometers have been allocated for the solar farm and electrolysis units, with an additional 2 square kilometers designated for methanol processing infrastructure. Altogether, the site will span more than twice the area of Paris, which covers roughly 105 square kilometers.

According to the China General Machinery Industry Association, construction will proceed in two stages. The first phase is expected to produce 1.1 million tonnes of methanol per year.

The methanol will be combined with benzene derived from coking coal to manufacture polyester-based materials, including PET, as stated by the developer CAS Liquid Sunshine (Shawan) Hydrogen Energy, a subsidiary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

PET (polyethylene terephthalate), commonly used in textiles as polyester, is typically produced by reacting purified terephthalic acid (PTA) with monoethylene glycol (MEG). In China, MEG is generally sourced from coal, while PTA is largely derived from oil-based feedstocks such as naphtha, including imports.

However, in this project—formally known as the CAS Liquid Sunshine (Shawan) zero-carbon, green hydrogen-integrated methanol circular economy project—both green methanol and coal-based benzene will be utilized to produce PTA, representing a shift toward lower-carbon production pathways.