In Shihezi City of the Eighth Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the autumn sky is clear and the clouds are light. In the 150th Regiment not far from the city, an ecological agriculture project called "Photovoltaic + Desertification Prevention and Control" is under intensive construction and will be connected to the grid at full capacity by the end of September.
Since 2024, Shihezi City has vigorously promoted major projects to start early, be built quickly, and achieve results rapidly, helping to realize green construction, digital transformation, and intelligent upgrading, injecting new vitality and adding new momentum to the building of a modern industrial system with Corps characteristics.
At the site of the 100-megawatt "Photovoltaic + Desertification Prevention and Control" and ecological agriculture project of Zhongxinjian Electric Power Group in the 150th Regiment, located on the southern edge of the Gurbantunggut Desert, the scorching sunlight is converted into electrical energy through photovoltaic panels and stored in batteries.
It was learned at the site that the project's booster station and transmission line were successfully energized on the first attempt, smoothly entering the subsequent commissioning and preparation stage for external power transmission.
After the project is connected to the grid, it can provide about 150 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually, save about 56,200 tons of standard coal, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 153,500 tons. This more than 4,000-mu desert area will become another green electricity supply base for Shihezi City.
Unlike conventional models of the past, this project combines photovoltaic development with ecological governance and innovatively adopts new models of "forest-photovoltaic complementarity" and "livestock-photovoltaic complementarity."
"In the future, economic crops such as sea buckthorn, goji berries, wild jujubes, and saxaul trees will be planted in the gaps between photovoltaic panels, making full use of the windbreak, wind-blocking, and sand-fixation functions of vegetation and photovoltaic panels to combine photovoltaic power generation with desert governance and ecological agriculture, forming a complete and recyclable ecological system and promoting the low-carbon green transformation of the Corps' industries," introduced Zhang Tingjun, member of the Party Committee and deputy general manager of Tianfu Energy under Zhongxinjian Electric Power Group.
For a long time, the Shihezi Economic and Technological Development Zone has attracted large and strong enterprises and introduced high-quality and innovative ones around the upgrading of traditional industries, the growth of strategic emerging industries, and the layout of future industries... Here, new momentum is constantly being generated, and new economic growth points are constantly emerging.
Upon entering the Shihezi Economic and Technological Development Zone, it was learned that the Shihezi Green Intelligent Computing Center project and the Shihezi Chengxin Green Intelligent Computing Center project are being advanced in an orderly manner.
It is reported that the Shihezi Green Intelligent Computing Center project plans a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan, and will renovate and upgrade the existing factory buildings of the Shihezi Economic and Technological Development Zone, planning to build 1,664 cabinets with a computing power scale of 4.2 EFLOPS. The Shihezi Chengxin Green Intelligent Computing Center project has a total investment of 150 million yuan, plans a construction area of about 5,000 square meters, and will build 1,000 standard server cabinets with a computing power scale of 1,176 PFLOPS. After the project is fully completed and operating at full load, it is expected to achieve an annual output value of 80 million yuan.
Wang Ke, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee of the Shihezi Development Zone (High-tech Zone) and executive deputy director of the Management Committee, said that intelligent computing power is a key force driving social development and scientific and technological progress. In recent years, the Shihezi Development Zone has focused on the upgrading of digital and intelligent technologies, planned and laid out emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, coordinated the advancement of the digital economy, and helped the high-quality development of Shihezi City's digital economy.
At Shihezi Garden Airport, an aircraft of Xinjiang Tianxiang Aviation College slowly taxied past. It is understood that Xinjiang Tianxiang Aviation College, jointly prepared by Civil Aviation University of China and Xinjiang General Aviation Co., Ltd., is a college specializing in training professionals for transport aviation and general aviation. Photo by Li Long, People's Daily Online
Stepping into the High-tech Zone of Shihezi City, the construction site of the Phase I, Section II project of Northwest Aviation Vocational and Technical School is bustling with activity.
"The Phase I, Section II project of the school is planned to be completed and put into use this year. The investment plan, planning and design adjustment, and filing for the Phase II project have been completed. After completion, the school will have more than 5,000 students," introduced Xiong Zhongming, head of the Planning and Construction Group of the Special Working Group of Shihezi High-tech Zone.
At present, because the "Aviation Town" in Shihezi City's High-tech Zone has gathered a group of "chain leader" and "leading" enterprises and vocational colleges such as Xinjiang Tianxiang Aviation College, Xinjiang Tianshan Xiongying International Flight Academy, and Northwest Aviation Vocational and Technical School, it has formed industrial advantages and brand effects in the field of aviation education and training and has become one of the important bases for aviation talent cultivation in China.
Since last year, Shihezi City has successively issued a series of policy documents such as the "Three-Year Action Plan for the Development of the General Aviation Industry" and the "Preferential Policies for Investment Promotion in the Development of the General Aviation Industry," providing support for the development of the general aviation industry in terms of talent, funding, and land.
These scenes are a microcosm of the accelerated construction of major projects in Shihezi City. At the end of June this year, 21 major projects in Shihezi City started construction in a concentrated manner. These projects have large investment scales, high technological content, and strong driving effects, with a total investment of 34.37 billion yuan, involving multiple fields such as industry, services, agriculture, social undertakings, and infrastructure construction.