Industrial Cluster: Alar City, The First Division Of Xinjiang Production And Construction Corps: "Desert Economy" Is Just In Time

In May, the first division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Alar City, on the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, was hit by hot air waves. Even hotter than the weather is the project construction boom surging everywhere: on the construction site, cars are coming and going to seize the construction period; In the greenhouse cotton field, people are crowded and fruitful

Entering the Alar Economic and Technological Development Zone, there are many factories. In the workshop, the equipment runs at full speed, spinning, weaving, printing, dyeing and printing have formed a closed loop of the whole industrial chain.

Twenty years ago, this new industrial city started from scratch on the Gobi desert. Now it has gathered more than 2000 enterprises of all kinds, becoming an important production base for cotton fiber, viscose fiber and polyester fiber, and has built a printing and dyeing system with the largest dyeing and finishing scale and the most complete printing and dyeing categories in Xinjiang.

Under the drive of Aral Economic Development Zone, Aral City actively undertakes the eastern industrial transfer, builds industrial clusters, speeds up the integration of industry and city, focuses on making textile and clothing, food processing, green chemicals, and green energy bigger and stronger, and creates three 10 billion industry clusters of cotton spinning, polyester, and viscose, so that the Gobi Desert has blossomed one after another.

The industrial structure is "new" and the energy structure is "green". Entering the 10th Regiment of the First Division, the construction of the ten million kilowatt photovoltaic project in Alar City is in full swing. Pieces of blue photovoltaic panels spread out on the Gobi desert, paving a blue ocean.

At the site of Yuanwang Load Storage Phase I Project of Aral Textile Industrial Park, workers are installing photovoltaic panels. As one of the ten million kilowatt photovoltaic projects in Alar City, the project covers an area of 3200 mu and adopts the single crystal silicon string distribution mode, with a total installed capacity of 100 MW.

Separated from the project, the Nanchang PV substation project of Nanjiang Energy Group, which covers an area of 5500 mu, has entered the construction completion and commissioning stage. The total installed capacity of the project is 200 MW, and the annual power generation can reach hundreds of millions of kilowatt hours.

"At present, we mainly use 620Wp single crystal silicon double glass modules for power generation, one group is 44 boards, and the annual power generation is 320 million kilowatt hours," said Lin Tong, the relevant person in charge of the enterprise.

It is reported that the ten million kilowatt photovoltaic project in Alar City is the photovoltaic base with the largest single capacity of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, covering a total area of about 100000 mu, all of which are Gobi Desert, with a total installed capacity of 3.31 GW. At present, the 0.71 GW photovoltaic project has been completed and put into operation, and the 2.6 GW photovoltaic project is under construction.

Watermelons for sale grow in the desert. On May 13, when we walked into the Guopai Agricultural Xinjiang Headquarters Base in Aral City, the first division of the Corps, we saw plump watermelons among the vines, which made us see the joy of harvest.

"There are abundant arable land resources, low cost of large-scale development, and abundant solar and thermal resources are suitable for watermelon growth." Sun Minghui, the manager of the base, said, "Through intelligent management, the water, fertilizer, and lighting time are precisely controlled, and the watermelons grown here have thin skin, red flesh, sweet taste, and juicy juice, which are very popular in the market."

At present, the base has registered and established Aral Guopai Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd., established the cooperative operation mode of "leading enterprise+party branch+cooperative+employees", and formed a new interest connection mechanism led by leading enterprise, led by company party branch and participated by cooperative, and benefited the workers and the masses, with remarkable results.

High quality watermelons are grown in desert Gobi, tilapia and California perch are raised in saline and alkaline water... Along the Tarim River basin, aquaculture is in full swing. With abundant water resources and through the combination of internal cultivation and external introduction, the six regiments and double towns, eleven regiments and Huaqiao Town, twelve regiments and Tanan Town, fourteen regiments and sixteen regiments have realized the breeding of various aquatic products, making "seafood" in the desert a new way to drive the income of employees.

He Jin, Chief of Agricultural Management Section of Aral Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau, introduced that in 2023, Aral was selected as the national innovation leading area of modern facility agriculture. In the next step, Alar City will continue to give play to the advantages of scenery and heat resources, continue to promote the integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism, and drive the income of workers and the masses. (Originally published in Guangming Daily on May 18)

(Source: Guangming Daily)