What are the large-scale solar power stations in remote areas

What type of land is used for PV power stations?

The land used for PV power stations was mainly converted from four land cover types: Gobi Desert, sandy land, sparse grassland, and moderate grassland. The central government policy on facilitating clean energy played a major role in driving the rapid expansion of PV parks across the country.

Can remote sensing data be used to identify PV power stations?

In general, a single PV area extracted from remote sensing imagery contains not only multiple PV arrays, but also internal roads and gaps, and ancillary power facilities. In addition, the 10-meter spatial resolution data used in the study has a scale bias in portraying the boundaries of PV power stations.

What land is used for PV power stations in China?

Land used for PV power stations were mainly converted from Gobi desert, sandy land, sparse and moderate grassland. The focus of China’s PV industry is shifting from the northwest to the south and east. Many leading countries are boosting renewables, especially solar energy, as a major way to mitigate future energy crises and climate change.

Can remote sensing imagery be used to map PV power stations?

Over the past few years, many researchers have been devoted to mapping PV power stations using remote sensing imagery. For large-scale PV power station mapping tasks, medium-resolution imagery (e.g., Sentinel, Landsat) is commonly used for monitoring centralized/utility-scale PV power stations.

Where are PV power stations located?

It contributes to studies on the spatial and temporal dynamics of PV power development. The results showed a total area of 109.53 km 2 of PV power station construction from 1990–2022. The fastest growth was found from 2010 to 2016, mainly distributed in the Mu Us Desert and Tengger Desert in Ningxia.

How much area does a PV power station have?

By 2019, the area of PV power stations has increased to 722.0 km 2, nearly tripled compared to 2013. The increase in area was mainly from Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang.