New solar carport opens at 4,300 meters on Mount Everest
New solar carport opens at 4,300 meters on Mount Everest
Chinese module maker Aiko Solar says it has built a 150 kW off-grid solar carport at an altitude of 4,300 meters on Mount Everest, featuring 645 W bifacial dual-glass modules and 200 kWh of battery storage.
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I'm confused. I did not think cars could reach Mount Everest. Thought you had to trek in and out through lots of foothills.
It's on the Tibetan side of Everest, and it reads like it's on China National Highway 318 (G318 on Google maps), which is actually really not very close to Everest but I guess it's the nearest main route on the northern side. Totally misleading headline. The average elevation of the Tibetan plateau is 4500m so the actual headline is "china builds an EV charging station on a main road in Tibet". The base camps that most international travellers use are on the Nepalese side.
I would imagine this is the drop off point for that trek. The top of Everest is over double the altitude.
Remember that the 14 tallest peaks in the world are over 8 km from sea level. So 4,300m is definitely not near the summit.
The article really sucks on details, but some quick googling tells me that the two base camps are above 5,100m, so this must be below even that.
Edit: the "remember" part is not condescending, just something I try to remember to give perspective on heights. And I thought it was the 8 highest peaks before fact-checking myself 😅.
It's just a bad headline, I think it's on highway G318 in Tibet, so you might be able to see Everest from there but you're probably not starting a hike from the charging station.