BEIJING, April 27 (Xinhua) -- The first phase of a renewable power project in the Tengger Desert in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was connected to the grid and began generating power on Wednesday, according to the China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy), the project's operator.

The first phase of the China Energy project runs purely on photovoltaic power with an installed capacity of 1 million kilowatts, the company said.

It is expected to generate 1.8 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power each year, meeting the demand of 1.5 million households, according to the company.

It is the first one of China's planned solar and wind power projects to be built in the Gobi Desert as well as other desert or arid areas in the country. The project was designed to run on wind and photovoltaic power, according to China Energy. It has a total installed capacity of 13 million kilowatts and an investment of over 85 billion yuan (about 12.28 billion U.S. dollars).

China plans to bring its combined wind and solar power capacity to 1.2 billion kilowatts by 2030, with power generated at large wind and photovoltaic power bases in the Gobi Desert as well as other desert or arid areas in the country totaling 455 million kilowatts.

（Picture: Veer）