On November 15, the absorber tower of the Xizang Kaitou Anduo Tushuo 100 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Station—the world's highest-altitude tower-type CSP station and the first of its kind in Tibet, for which Northwest Engineering Corporation Limited (Northwest Institute) served as the lead general contractor—was topped out. The construction took 180 days, achieving completion of the tower structure within the same year it broke ground, providing a replicable "Chinese solution" for clean energy development in high-altitude regions worldwide.

The Xizang Kaitou Anduo Tushuo 100 MW CSP Station is located approximately 17.5 kilometers east of Pana Town, Anduo County, Nagqu City. It is a key energy project under Tibet's 14th Five-Year Plan and an important component of Tibet's 750,000 kW CSP program. With an installed capacity of 100 MW, the station is the world's first CSP station built in an ultra-high-altitude (4,650 meters), ultra-low-temperature, and extremely weak-grid environment, and it is also Tibet's first tower-type CSP project.

As the project's "energy hub," the absorber tower has a barrel height of 185 meters, a bottom radius of 12.5 meters, and a top radius of 8.5 meters. The successful topping out of the absorber tower provides a new paradigm for the high-standard construction of core structures for CSP projects in frigid, high-altitude regions.

Since the project broke ground, in the face of the complex environment of frigid, high-altitude regions, the project team, upholding the spirit of "no shortage of resolve despite oxygen shortage, and higher morale at higher altitude," carried out unified planning and meticulous organization. The team overcame external adverse factors such as the plateau environment and severe weather, established a safety protection and quality assurance system covering the entire process of design, construction, and acceptance, integrated the "smart construction site" into construction process management, and coordinated the deployment of construction and production work, effectively ensuring the safe and smooth topping out of the absorber tower's main structure.

After the project is completed, it will generate an average annual power output of 255.08 million kWh, with approximately 2,551 utilization hours per year. It will save 60,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 165,000 tons annually, providing stable clean electricity to Anduo County and surrounding areas, injecting strong green momentum into the Tibet power grid, and offering valuable experience and solutions for the large-scale development of clean energy in frigid, high-altitude regions.

As a core driver of China's CSP technology innovation and engineering practice, Northwest Institute began laying out its plans as early as 2013, establishing a CSP design and project management team, and comprehensively deepening CSP technology research and business expansion. It has become one of China's first general contractors for CSP demonstration projects, with project areas covering key provinces such as Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, and Tibet.

To date, the total installed capacity of CSP feasibility study designs completed by Northwest Institute exceeds 4 million kW, the total installed capacity at the survey and design stage reaches 1.55 million kW, and the total EPC general contracting installed capacity reaches 650,000 kW, firmly placing it in the first tier of domestic CSP survey and design enterprises and creating industry firsts in multiple fields.