Sources: All information stated in this article is based on reliable information, and is summarized at the end of this article.
The beach is windy and the sun is strong.
Even Yongzheng and Qianlong called this desert "Duotang", which is a dry beach.
According to folklore: As long as he goes up to Tara Beach, his son will not recognize Dada (father).
The largest beach in Gonghe County, Qinghai Province, with a total area of 1,958 square kilometers, is seriously degraded and developed into desert grasslands.
How did it become the largest photovoltaic power generation base on the mainland? And how did it realize the "transfer" from desert to pasture?
The beach is windy and the sun is strong
It is a light seven words, but it has been a headache for Gonghe County in Qinghai Province for many years.
And the reason for this is none other than the fact that this wind is really "desertification" far beyond imagination.
Tara Beach originally belonged to this alpine arid desertification grassland, located in the southeast of Gonghe County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province.
The name "beach" is transliterated from the Mongolian language, which means that it is a flat and stepped-up grassland or barren beach.
So how wild is this Tara Beach?
From 1987 to September 1996 alone, there was no such high-cover grassland in Tara Beach, and the medium-coverage grassland decreased by 12.7 mu, or an average of 14,000 mu per year.
In addition to the loss of grassland coverage, the number of wild livestock is also increasing dramatically, and there is not much grass planting, and Tara Beach is an area with a cold, arid, windy and frosty climate.
Tara Beach became a "dangerous place".
According to the records, the total area of soil erosion in Tara Beach reached 3.197 million mu, accounting for 72% of the total area of the beach, and the area of soil erosion above moderate reached 50,000 mu, accounting for 1.1% of the total area of the beach.
There are more and more deserts, and the situation in Tara Beach is getting more and more serious, the already small grassland is seriously degraded, the vegetation coverage continues to decline, and the people's lives can be described as miserable.
It's just that who would have thought that this desertified Tara Beach could become the largest photovoltaic power generation base in the mainland?
In fact, in 2000, the state noticed the situation of Tara Beach and began to carry out pilot experiments, in the north of Tara Beach, away from the town of Qiapcha Town, located on the west side of National Highway 214, the implementation of wind and sand control projects, such as the planting of caragana, grass and sand soil barrier treatment.
Although he was apprehensive, this 10,000 acres of planting into the land was finally a struggle. Since it is effective, it will continue to be governed, and after more than 20 years of ecological management, Tara Beach has begun to complete the butterfly transformation.
Photovoltaic power station?grassland pasture?
Tara Beach is seriously desertified, but it was never thought to be an "unexpected advantage".
The beach is windy and the sun is strong, which is also the opportunity for Tara Beach to become a photovoltaic power generation base.
With high altitude, clean air, abundant sunshine, strong radiation and abundant solar energy resources, the photovoltaic power station in Tara Beach is even more dazzling than elsewhere.
Xining, Qinghai alone, has a complete photovoltaic power generation industry chain in the country, with more than 7 million photovoltaic panels spread out on the meadow according to the ups and downs of the terrain, with a total installed capacity of 2.2GW.
In 2011, Tara Beach built the world's largest photovoltaic power generation park with installed capacity.
In 2013, the technology became more and more mature in Tara Beach, where photovoltaic panels could be seen everywhere, taking advantage of the innate terrain to give full play to the greatest advantages.
The shading effect of photovoltaic panels can reduce the evaporation of surface water, which can promote the growth of plants in arid areas.
With the help of photovoltaic panels to improve the diversity of plant communities, coupled with the success of the previous experiment of 10,000 acres of vegetation land in 2000, the emergence of photovoltaic panels can be said to have made this Tara Beach, which has always been called a desert, have a tendency to "green".
Regional development, ecological migration, poverty alleviation, and economic development have begun to become new trends for the villagers around Tara Beach.
The upstairs houses and the downstairs shops are used for operation or rental, and a number of photovoltaic poverty alleviation power stations have been built in the photovoltaic park, which has supported and driven 173 poor villages and nearly 7,300 poor households in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with sustainable income for 20 years.
There are more than 3,000 public welfare posts such as cleaning, greening, water and electricity, road maintenance, and repair services to ensure the employment of villagers.
With "photovoltaic" as the connection point, ecology, animal husbandry, and Tara Beach finally asked for the "desert" label.
"Driving" has become the key to the development of Tara Beach, as long as it can promote the development of the region, all the resources that can be driven will be used to the best of our ability.
There is also a combination of "the water of Longyang Gorge and the light of Tara Beach".
Under the "water and light complementation", the Longyangxia Hydropower Station can save about 464,600 tons of standard coal, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 1,226,600 tons, and reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by about 3,944.16 tons every year.
When the sunlight is strong, photovoltaic power generation is used, when the weather changes or at night, hydropower is used, in short, this green vegetation is under the blessing of this photovoltaic power station, and the Gobi is more and more green.
In 2021, the world's first 100% clean energy transmission project was completed and put into operation. The 850,000 kilowatt hydro-solar hybrid power generation project has become the world's largest single power station.
In 2022, the 609.6-square-kilometer photovoltaic power station in Tara Beach alone won the Guinness World Record for "Largest Installed Capacity of Photovoltaic Power Generation Park".
The green vegetation has developed, and the livestock have naturally followed.
And these more than 20,000 "photovoltaic sheep" are a major feature of the Tara Beach photovoltaic power station.
The place where the sheep live is under the photovoltaic panels, and the green plants everywhere under the photovoltaic panels are everywhere, and the sheep go to the green plants under the photovoltaic panels to graze, on the one hand, it can prevent certain weeds from blocking the photovoltaic panels, so as to reduce the power generation conversion rate.
In addition, this sheep manure is this natural fertilizer.
One link after another, with photovoltaic power as the key link, from the Gobi to the green beach, from the desert to the pasture, from the people's hardship to employment.
The people's lives are rich, the industrial chain of photovoltaic power stations has been improved, Tara Beach has gotten rid of the title of desert, and even this photovoltaic power has brought the animal husbandry chain.
It was unexpectedly discovered that the large sun in Tara Beach is an "advantage", unexpectedly found that the photovoltaic power station can become a key industrial chain in the world in Qinghai, unexpectedly found that the photovoltaic panels can "nourish" the growth of plants in arid areas, and unexpectedly found that the livestock can "feed" the green plants under the photovoltaic panels.
This can drive regional development, and the "oolong" of people getting rid of poverty and becoming well-off is also a good experience.
Resources:
Tara Beach in Great Change, Tibet, China, 2023, CNKI
Effects of Talatan Photovoltaic Power Station on Vegetation Diversity in Qinghai Province, Qinghai Science and Technology, 2023, CNKI
新闻调查⑦ | 塔拉滩上牧羊曲——澎湃新闻
The "water" of Longyang Gorge and the "light" of Tara Beach - China Youth Network
Energy is "green" and the industry is "yang" - Qinghai Daily
Qinghai Tara Beach: From a barren beach to the world's largest photovoltaic power generation park - China News Network