The local climate impact of photovoltaic solar farms--Results from a field observation campaign in gobi desert

摘要

Large-scale solar power farms are rapidly increasing in size and number across the world. However, the surface heat balance is altered when a photovoltaic (PV) power plant is deployed. Modifications to the surface albedo through the deployment of photovoltaic arrays have the potential to change radiative forcing, surface temperatures and local weather patterns. In this work, the field observation data from a large solar farm and a region without PV array in Golmud are used to study the impact of large solar farms in desert areas on the local climate. The results show the mean daily albedo in the solar farm is 0.19, while it is 0.26 in the region without PV. The annual mean net radiation in the solar farm is evidently higher than that of the region without PV. The annual range of soil temperatures at depths of 5-180 cm in the solar farm is bigger than that in the region without PV. The soil temperatures at different depths in winter in the solar farm are clearly lower than those in the region without PV. The 2-m daytime air temperature in the two sites is essentially the same during winter, while during the other seasons, the daytime air temperature in the PV farm is higher than that in the region without PV. with the maximum difference appearing in summer. The nighttime air temperatures at the height of 2 m during the four seasons in the solar farm are higher than those in the region without PV.