Renew mineral resource-based cities: Assessment of PV potential in coal mining subsidence areas

Abstract

Accurately assessing the photovoltaic (PV) power generation potential in coal mining subsiding regions is of great significance for the transformation of a resource-based city and the goal of carbon neutrality. In this paper, we proposed an assessment method for the PV power potential in coal mining subsidence areas. Both the environmental factors and ground deformation by interferometric synthetic aperture radar were fully considered. Furthermore, the levelized cost of PV electricity in subsidence areas and the benefits were predicted. Yangquan City, Shanxi province was selected as a study case. Results show that the optimal areas for PV power generation under the three-deformation rate ranges of (−40, −10), (−50, −10), and (−60, −10) mm/year in the Yangquan subsidence area are 32.13, 37.89 and 41.22 km2, respectively. The selected optimal PV construction regions agree well with the exiting PV facilities, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed method. The levelized cost of energy is estimated at 0.3934 RMB/kWh. The annual power generation can meet about 33 % of the electricity demand of Yangquan City. This work would guide the construction of PV power generation facilities in the coal mining subsidence areas for the transformation and upgrading of the mineral resource-based cities.