Projected PV plants in China’s Gobi Deserts would result in lower evaporation and wind

Abstract

In this study, a promising photovoltaic (PV) deployment scenario is firstly designed to represent China’s solar energy development in the context of its dual carbon target. Then, the potential climate effects of the designed PV plants under different emission scenarios are simulated using a newly developed weather research and forecasting (WRF)-PV regional climate model, which is initiated by the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) projections. The modeling results indicate that the projected PV plants in China’s Gobi Deserts could impact the local climate, causing positive change of 3.71 ± 0.03 % in the surface relative humidity, and negative changes of 1.60 ± 1.36 W/m2 in the latent heat flux and 0.39 ± 0.00 m/s in the 10-m wind speed in July by about 2060 under the intermediate emission scenario, and these PV-induced climate effects are approximately equivalent to or even greater than the projected climate variability, but almost confined to the local area. These findings suggest that the projected PV deployment in China will lead to low carbon emissions while causing favorable climate effects, such as lower evaporation and wind speed in Gobi Deserts, which will bring environmental and ecological benefits to the PV industry.