<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/desert-greening-chinas-massive-solar-farms-create-cool-refuges-for-plants-in-gobi-desert/>
"China’s efforts to cover its deserts with solar panels are creating a cool
refuge that is allowing plants to grow in previously inhospitable locations,
according to a new study out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Lanzhou.
The study, published in the
Ecological Indicators journal, shows that a cool
island effect depends on how the solar farm is designed, the climate it’s in,
and the season.
Solar panels have been shown to create heat islands in more vegetated or humid
locations, where land surface temperatures are usually lower than in deserts
and the landscape has more things in it.
But in China’s Gobi desert, a landscape of sand, gravel, sparse grasses and
rehabilitated lands, the uniformity of the terrain combined with the very high
average land surface temperature means solar panels can cool the land under and
around a project.
The study used satellite images capturing land surface temperatures from 2022
to figure out the scale of daytime cooling at eight solar farms mainly in
Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Qinghai.
It found the highest daytime cooling effect of 3.1ºC at a farm near Wuzhong
City in Ningxia province and the lowest of 0.2ºC at a project near Hongshagang
Town in Gansu, and the solar farms were better at creating a cool island effect
in summer.
China is aiming to build 455 gigawatts (GW) of solar in the Gobi desert and
other desertified regions by 2030.
The projects are one part of the state’s decades-long “war on sand” as it tries
to stop creeping desertification and worsening dust storms with vegetation and
afforestation programs."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
