Large-scale PV has positive environmental effect on desert areas

Researchers from China found that big solar power plants have a positive positive impact on the ecological environment of desert areas. Their testing was conducted at a 1 GW solar park located in China’s northeastern Qinghai province.

A research team led by scientists from China’s Xi’an University of Technology has assessed the ecological and environmental effects of large-scale PV development in desert areas.

As a case study, they evaluated the on-site (WPS) effect of the Qinghai Gonghe Photovoltaic Park, a massive 1 GW installation located in a typical alpine arid desert in Talatan, in China's northeastern Qinghai province. The WPS was compared to transitional zone (TPS) and off-site (OPS) areas to control the findings.

Their analysis was based on the Driving-Pressure-Status-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model, which is recommended by the European Environment Agency (EEA). This framework breaks down environmental issues into five components, as mentioned in its name.

Driving forces refer to underlying causes of environmental change; pressures are the direct effects of driving forces on the environment; status refers to the current condition of the environment as a result of the pressures; while impact refers to their effect on human health, and biodiversity; finally, response is the action taken to address or reduce the impacts.

Overall, 57 indicators in those fields were analyzed. Some of the data were taken from official documents, some from real-time monitoring, and others from sample testing and field investigation. The weight of each indicator was based on the entropy weight method, which gives higher importance to indicators with less variability.

In the DPSIR model, the “worse” environmental rating is achieved if the index range is 0-0.2, while the “poor” rating is achieved if the score is 0.2-0.35. The “general” rating is obtained when the score is between 0.35-0.55, the “good” one when it scores 0.55-0.75, and the “excellent” one if it ranges between 0.75 and 1.

The location of the Qinghai Gonghe Photovoltaic Park has an average annual temperature is 4.1 C, precipitation of 246.3 mm, evaporation of 1716.7 mm, sunshine duration of 2,300 hours to 3,500 hours, total radiation of 6564.26 MJ/m², wind speed of 1.8 m/s, with the wind direction being mainly westerly and northwest. The park uses non-transparent monocrystalline silicon or polycrystalline silicon PV panels, some fixed, some with semi-tracking, and some with full tracking.

Through their analysis, the scientists found that the overall score in the WPS was “general,” with a score of 0.4393, TPS and OPS scored “poor” with 0.2858 and 0.2802, respectively. According to the scientists, that suggests that “photovoltaic development has primarily induced positive effects on the region’s microclimate, physical and chemical properties of the soil, and diversity of the plant and microbial communities, as supported by recent findings.”

The group also found that the desert PV plant has possibly influenced the index in all issues: WPS scored 0.0513 in driving factors, while TPS and OPS had both 0.0257; it also did better with pressure, scoring 0.0145, while TPS achieved 0.0090 and OPS obtained 0.0072. In status, WPS scored 0.1818, while TPS scored 0.1155, and OPS showed 0.1114. In the impact indicators, WPS scored 0.1096, TPS 0.0945, and OPS 0.0948. As for response, the results were 0.0821, 0.0411, and 0.411, respectively.


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