Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Geographic Information Science and Technology, Key Laboratory for Land Satellite Remote Sensing Applications of Ministry of Natural Resources, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210023, China; Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210023, China.
Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA; Environmental Science and Policy Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Dec 15;324:116338. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116338. Epub 2022 Oct 5.
Solar energy is considered one of the key solutions to the growing demand for energy and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Thanks to the relatively low cost of land use for solar energy and high power generation potential, a large number of photovoltaic (PV) power stations have been established in desert areas around the world. Despite the contribution to easing the energy crisis and combating climate change, large-scale construction and operation of PV power stations can change the land cover and affect the environment. However, few studies have focused on these special land cover changes, especially vegetation cover changes, which hinders understanding the effects of the extensive development of solar energy. Here, we used Continuous Change Detection and Classification - Spectral Mixture Analysis (CCDC-SMA) based on Landsat images to monitor changes in vegetation abundance before and after the PV power stations deployment. To reduce the interference of PV shading on vegetation abundance estimation, we improved the vegetation (VG) fraction from SMA and developed the Photovoltaics-Adjusted Vegetation (PAVG) fraction for vegetation abundance measurements in PV power stations. Results show that PV power stations in China's 12 biggest deserts expanded from 0 to 102.56 km from 2011 to 2018, mainly distributed in the central part of north China. The desert vegetation in the deployment area of PV power stations presented a significant greening trend. Compared to 2010, the greening area reached 30.80 km, accounting for 30% of the total area of PV power stations. Overall, the large-scale deployment of PV power stations has promoted desert greening, primarily due to government-led Photovoltaic Desert Control Projects and favorable climatic change. This study shows the great benefits of PV power stations in combating desertification and improving people's welfare, which bring sustainable economic, ecological and social prosperity in sandy ecosystems.
太阳能被认为是解决能源需求增长和减少温室气体排放的关键方案之一。由于太阳能利用土地的成本相对较低，且具有较高的发电潜力，因此在全球范围内的沙漠地区建立了大量的光伏（PV）电站。尽管大规模建设和运营 PV 电站为缓解能源危机和应对气候变化做出了贡献，但它们可能会改变土地覆盖并影响环境。然而，很少有研究关注这些特殊的土地覆盖变化，尤其是植被覆盖变化，这阻碍了对广泛开发太阳能的影响的理解。在这里，我们使用基于 Landsat 图像的连续变化检测和分类-光谱混合分析（CCDC-SMA）来监测光伏电站部署前后植被丰度的变化。为了减少光伏遮荫对植被丰度估算的干扰，我们从 SMA 中改进了植被（VG）分数，并开发了用于光伏电站植被丰度测量的光伏调整植被（PAVG）分数。结果表明，从 2011 年到 2018 年，中国 12 个最大沙漠中的光伏电站面积从 0 扩展到 102.56 公里，主要分布在华北中部。光伏电站部署区的沙漠植被呈现出显著的绿化趋势。与 2010 年相比，绿化面积达到 30.80 公里，占光伏电站总面积的 30%。总体而言，大规模部署光伏电站促进了沙漠绿化，这主要归因于政府主导的光伏治沙项目和有利的气候变化。本研究表明，光伏电站在防治荒漠化和改善民生方面具有巨大的效益，为沙质生态系统带来了可持续的经济、生态和社会效益。
