China completes 'power expressway loop' around southern Xinjiang desert

China has finished construction of a 4,197-km extra-high voltage power transmission loop around the Tarim Basin, home to the country's largest desert, marking a major infrastructure milestone in southern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China.

The final section of the 750-kilovolt (kV) loop, now the country's largest of its kind, was connected on Sunday, capping a 15-year project involving nine substations and nearly 10,000 steel towers, according to a subsidiary of State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd., which constructed the project.

This move completed a "power expressway loop", which is expected to become fully operational by November 2025, the company said.

Tarim Basin is home to the Taklimakan Desert, the world's second-largest drifting desert. For centuries, relentless sandstorms have battered the oases of southern Xinjiang, isolating them not only in terms of distance but also from the prospects of development.

Officials and experts say the project could put southern Xinjiang on a fast track to development and boost new energy supply nationwide.