Contemporary Chinese film and science fiction often depicts sacrifice for the sake of a better future – technologically and industrially advanced, and based on massive-scale long-term planning. Little wonder when its industrialization produces vast developments such as those announced in Xinjiang and Qinghai this week: five solar projects signed in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi totalling 17 GW, and a tender for a 3 GW solar, 1 GW/2 GWh energy storage complex in Golmud. Golmud is the second-largest city in Qinghai province, which adjoins Xinjiang and Tibet. A lot of China’s early solar development occurred in these sorts of far-flung but sunny places, before being hampered by curtailment and distance from the heartland. Industry efforts shifted east, and into Inner Mongolia, a…