As the weather warms up, the dust becomes active again. Spring is the season of high occurrence of sand and dust weather in the mainland, and April is the most frequent, as one of the most frequently affected areas of sand and dust, Xinjiang, just 2 months ago with the entry "Xinjiang sand and dust storm" rushed to the hot search.
Source: Xinjiang Meteorological Bureau
Recently, the Xinjiang Meteorological Observatory has successively issued blue warning signals for gale and yellow warning signals for sandstorms. As of 16:50 on April 11, there are 30 warnings for strong winds and sandstorms in Xinjiang.
National sand and dust weather forecast map. Source: Central Meteorological Observatory
Sandstorms have a huge impact on photovoltaic power plants
It is reported that due to the recent sandstorms, photovoltaic projects under construction in a certain place in Xinjiang are suspected to have been damaged in a large area. According to the video posted by netizens, large-area photovoltaic modules and brackets were overturned and damaged by strong winds, resulting in heavy losses.
It can be seen in the live video that a large number of photovoltaic modules are damaged, bent and scattered. This kind of weather is not the first time in Xinjiang, and such a test is a necessary checkpoint for the construction of photovoltaic power in Xinjiang.
Previously, on November 27, 2022, Sinopec's Phase I 300MW photovoltaic hydrogen production project in Kuqa, Xinjiang, encountered a rare 13-level sandstorm. It is reported that the disaster caused the loss of about 200MW of photovoltaic power plants. Previously, it was expected that the project would be completed and connected to the grid by the end of October, and the losses caused by the disaster may be relatively heavy.
It can be seen that sandstorm weather has a huge impact on photovoltaic power plants. Xinjiang and other northwest regions have abundant sunlight resources and excellent conditions for the development of photovoltaics, however, a problem that cannot be ignored is that the sand and dust problem in these areas seriously restricts the efficiency of solar power generation. Sandstorms are not only frequent, but also have a particularly significant impact on photovoltaic panels, and studies have shown that dust coverage can lead to a 20% to 60% reduction in power generation efficiency, seriously affecting the energy output of photovoltaic power plants.
How to do a good job in maintenance and dust removal to minimize the damage of sand and dust weather to photovoltaic power stations has become a problem that needs to be considered in the construction of photovoltaic power plants.
As a development idea adapted to local conditions, photovoltaic desertification control is being widely used
In the eyes of the ancients, the desert was "the desert is lonely and the sun sets on the long river", and it is "the desert sand is like snow, and the moon is like a hook in the mountains", and now the desert has become an important base for photovoltaic power generation. As one of the countries with the largest desertification area, the largest affected population, and the most serious sand hazards in the world, the mainland has long regarded the prevention and control of desertification as an important strategic task and adopted a series of effective measures. In recent years, photovoltaic desertification control, as a new form of business, has become an important choice for desertification prevention and control in the mainland, combining desertification control and power generation, which are two seemingly unrelated industries.
What is photovoltaic desertification control?
It refers to the construction of photovoltaic power stations in desert areas, the combination of photovoltaic power stations and desert management and water-saving agriculture, the planting and construction of shelterbelts on the periphery of photovoltaic power stations, and the installation of water-saving drip irrigation facilities under photovoltaic panels.
This kind of desert photovoltaic industry has a huge power generation potential but also has a variety of ecological functions, practice has proved that after the installation of photovoltaic panels, a large number of deserts gradually turned into grassland, the effect of ecological environment restoration is very good. At the same time, drought-tolerant cash crops and psammophytes can be planted interspersed in the open space of the photovoltaic power station, and the vegetation planted between the photovoltaic arrays plays a role in preventing wind and sand fixation, preventing and controlling soil erosion, effectively curbing the expansion of the desert, and at the same time, photovoltaic panel power generation produces considerable economic benefits.
However, there are still many problems with the photovoltaic desertification control model. First, the ecological environment of deserts and desert areas is relatively fragile, the environmental capacity is limited, and the sensitivity to human activities is strong, which is very easy to cause land desertification and soil erosion, and after being damaged, the self-regulation and recovery ability is extremely poor.
In addition, as mentioned above, sandstorms have a huge impact on photovoltaic power plants, and measures should be taken to reduce the damage caused by sand erosion to photovoltaic power plants during later maintenance and operation. We can make full use of the existing technologies of wind and sand control, shelterbelt construction, tree planting and grass planting, such as the implementation of sand control measures such as grass grid sand barriers, and build wind choke belts around the photovoltaic power station to reduce the possibility of direct impact of wind and sand on the photovoltaic power station.
Photovoltaic sand control turns sand sea into a "blue ocean"
At present, the mainland has built a number of large-scale photovoltaic desertification control projects.
2 million kilowatt photovoltaic sand control project in Kubuqi, Mengxi base
On November 29, 2023, one of the first batch of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic base projects to start construction during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the Kubuqi 2 million kilowatt photovoltaic sand control project of Mengxi base, was successfully connected to the grid. This is currently the largest single photovoltaic desertification control project in China, with an average annual production of about 4.1 billion kilowatt hours of green electricity, which can save about 1.23 million tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 3.19 million tons per year. The project also adopted advanced technologies such as minimally invasive airflow tree planting, wind direction data method, and drone flying, and restored and managed 100,000 acres of desert. With the completion of the project, the local ecological environment has been improved, and in the summer, colorful cosmos bloom on the roadside of the Kubuqi Desert.
With the construction of the 2 million kilowatt photovoltaic sand control project in Kubuqi in Mengxi Base, photovoltaic panels have been set up in the Kubuqi Desert, and patches of green landscapes have appeared.
Dalat Qirunda photovoltaic power station
With an installed capacity of 110,400 kilowatts, the Dalat Banner Runda Photovoltaic Power Station is located in the hinterland of the Kubuqi Desert in the Dalat Banner. The power station is the first to choose double-sided double-glass photovoltaic modules as power generation components, which can increase the power generation efficiency by at least 15% compared with ordinary photovoltaic power stations.
100MW photovoltaic sand control and energy storage in Kezuohouqi
China Datang Kezuohouqi 100MW photovoltaic sand control energy storage project is located in Ganqika Town, Kezuohouqi, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with undulating terrain. The construction scale of the project is 100MW, and the proportion of 30% of the total installed capacity of photovoltaic power stations is equipped with energy storage systems, and a total of 30MW/60MWh energy storage devices are equipped. The average annual power generation of the project is about 190 million kWh, which can save 59,000 tons of standard coal per year. With the project being connected to the grid at full capacity, its supporting energy storage system has completed the joint commissioning work simultaneously, marking the successful commissioning of the first energy storage pilot project of Mengdong Power Grid.
Huadian Changji Mulei million kilowatt "wind and photovoltaic storage"
Huadian Changji Mulei million kilowatt "wind and photovoltaic storage" base project is located in Mulei County, Changji Prefecture, with a total installed capacity of 1.05 million kilowatts, of which 250,000 kilowatts are photovoltaic power generation projects. After the project is put into operation, it can add 2.6 billion kWh of "green electricity" every year, saving more than 850,000 tons of standard coal every year. Xinjiang Huadian Huozhou Energy Co., Ltd.'s 90,000 photovoltaic "photovoltaic sand control" project covers an area of 2,366.27 acres, with an annual power generation capacity of 103 million kilowatt hours and an annual saving of 39,900 tons of standard coal. In the early days of the construction of photovoltaic power plants, the Gobi Desert was often swept by wind and sand, but after the completion of the project, the sand and dust were significantly improved.
Inner Mongolia Dengkou 50MW PV
continues to explore the new model of "photovoltaic +", and has built the country's first photovoltaic desertification control project - the 50MW photovoltaic project in Dengkou, Inner Mongolia, and developed the combination of photovoltaic and desert management and water-saving agriculture, so that the local desert vegetation coverage rate has increased from the original 5% to 77%, turning the desert into a treasure land, and achieving a win-win situation for economy and ecology. At the site of the 50MW PV sand control project in Dengkou, rows of modules are neatly arranged and spotless under the clear sky, while in the empty land of each row of modules, there are alfalfa with purple flowers and lush pastures, and there is hardly a shadow of "desert" here.
Ningxia Tengger Desert New Energy Base
The Ningxia Tengger Desert New Energy Base Project is the first base project in the national 10 million kilowatt "Shagehuang" base that has been recorded, started and put into operation, of which the first phase of the project is implemented by the National Energy Group Longyuan Power. The project can provide 1.8 billion kWh of clean electricity per year, which can meet the annual electricity consumption of 1.5 million households. Through the laying of 26,000 acres of grass grids and grass seed sowing, we will carry out diversified desertification control models and desertification control economies, build a solid ecological barrier, and contribute to improving the country's energy security capacity, promoting clean and low-carbon energy transformation, and achieving the goal and task of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" as scheduled.
Xinjiang and the last 100,000 kilowatt photovoltaic power station
The project is located in the hinterland of the Taklamakan Desert in Xinjiang, which is the first large-scale centralized photovoltaic power station project built in the center of China's largest desert and the world's second largest mobile desert known as the "Sea of Death". The project covers an area of 3,916 acres, with an installed capacity of 100,000 kilowatts, with a total of 32 photovoltaic arrays equipped with energy storage devices. The annual power generation capacity is about 210 million kilowatt hours, the annual saving of standard coal is about 60,300 tons, and the annual emission reduction of carbon dioxide is about 132,100 tons, which has good economic, social and ecological benefits, and also provides a useful reference for the construction of photovoltaic clean energy in the center of the mobile desert in the mainland, and has accumulated valuable experience.
Fixed edge 100 MW agricultural-photovoltaic complementary photovoltaic
Shaanxi Dingbian 100 MW agricultural-photovoltaic power generation project is located in the southeast of the Mu Us Desert, once an inaccessible "barren land", has now been transformed into a "wind and photovoltaic storage" energy base. The project adopts the "agriculture and light complementation" model of on-board power generation and planting cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant plants such as licorice, flower sticks, and sand rice under the board, which can not only effectively fix sand, but also create economic value, forming a sustainable sand control model from sand control to ecological development, energy-saving photovoltaic and industrial chain, which not only realizes the improvement of desert land governance, but also drives the surrounding farmers and herdsmen to get rid of poverty and become rich.
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The story of sand control always begins with "a piece of yellow sand in the Gobi" and ends with a deepening and expanding green, and at the end of this story, there is a touch of blue of photovoltaic panels.
From the sand into the people to the people into the sand retreat, from the sand to the sand to the symbiosis of the sand and man, "although it is hard to find thousands of waters, blow all the wild sand to the gold." "China's desert PV projects, while bringing clean energy, are quietly changing the face of the desert and injecting new life into this desolate land.