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32MW Wasteland-based PV Tracking System Project | Ningxia, China

January 07, 2026

1. Project Overview

1.1 Project Background: This project is a landmark tracking PV project undertaken by Antaisolar in the wasteland regions of Northwest China, located in Ningxia. It is not only a key initiative supporting the development of a green economy in Ningxia, but also the first large-scale photovoltaic project in China to apply multi-drive tracking technology. By leveraging advanced tracking solutions, the project aims to achieve a dual win of enhanced power generation efficiency and ecological stability.

1.2 Project Requirements: Situated on the edge of the Tengger Desert, the project is located in a typical temperate continental arid climate zone. While facing extreme natural conditions—including sandy soil, undulating terrain with slopes of up to 20%, frequent sandstorms, and large day–night temperature differences—the project was required to ensure long-term system reliability, increased energy yield, and strong investment returns. As such, a highly adaptive tracking system was needed—one capable of accommodating complex terrain, resisting strong wind and sand erosion, enabling intelligent and precise tracking, and significantly reducing construction and operation and maintenance costs.

2. Project Challenges

2.1 Severe Wind, Sand, and Climatic Conditions
●Frequent sandstorms pose serious risks of mechanical wear and dust ingress to the moving components of the tracking system.
●Extreme day–night temperature variations place stringent demands on the long-term structural and operational stability of the system.

2.2 Engineering Adaptation to Complex, Undulating Terrain
●The site features terrain slopes of up to 20%. Conventional large-scale grading solutions would result in high costs and irreversible damage to the native ecosystem. This required the tracking system and array layout to offer high flexibility, enabling stable installation and optimal orientation with minimal earthworks.

2.3 Intelligence and Stability of the Tracking System
● In wasteland regions with frequent strong winds, conventional tracking systems are prone to vibration and resonance, threatening module safety. Ensuring structural rigidity, operational stability, and reliable automatic protection under extreme wind conditions was fundamental to project safety.

3. Solution
By deeply integrating ecological requirements with tracking technology, Antaisolar delivered a one-stop solution centered on a 2P horizontal single-axis intelligent tracking system.

3.1 High Reliability and Environmental Adaptability
● The tracking system adopts a multi-drive mechanical linkage design, distributing driving forces evenly. This significantly enhances overall torsional stiffness and ensures smooth operation under wind and sand disturbances.
● Steel structural components are treated with enhanced anti-corrosion protection, ensuring long-term durability under arid conditions, strong UV exposure, and sand erosion.

3.2 Precise and Flexible Adaptation to Complex Terrain
● Large-scale site leveling was avoided in favor of a customized “site-specific solution” approach. Through high-precision surveying and digital modeling, independent pile foundation coordinates were generated for each tracker row, allowing PV arrays to closely follow the natural undulating desert topography. This approach minimized earthworks and effectively protected the fragile desert ecosystem.

3.3 Intelligent Tracking and Coordinated Control System
● Equipped with Antaisolar’s self-developed SmartTrail intelligent tracking control system, the solution combines high-precision algorithms with localized meteorological data to enable accurate solar tracking.
● The system integrates multiple protection strategies, automatically rotating the arrays to preset wind-stow positions during high-wind events, while incorporating fault self-diagnosis and redundant safety mechanisms to ensure secure operation under extreme weather conditions.

4. Results
● The project was successfully completed and connected to the grid by the end of 2020 and has been operating stably ever since. As China’s first large-scale application of multi-drive tracking technology, the project has validated the exceptional adaptability and reliability of tracking systems in extreme desert environments and has received strong recognition from the project owner.
● The project realized true synergy between ecological protection and economic benefits. By adopting a construction approach that conforms to natural terrain and minimizes earthworks, the project preserved the ecological baseline and successfully demonstrated the integration of “PV + ecology.”