A recent study finds that solar farms may have “positive” ecological effects in China’s deserts, where efforts are under way to reverse desertification.
The findings indicate “the essential role played by the construction of photovoltaic power stations in ecological environmental governance in desert areas,” linked to impacts on “the microclimate and the soil, plant, and microbial communities in these regions.”
However, the solar park still exerts pressure on the land, and further improvements are needed to achieve optimal ecological conditions, the researchers say.
Published in the journal Nature, the study evaluates the ecological and environmental effects of a solar installation at China’s 64-square-kilometre Qinghai Gonghe Photovoltaic Park, located in Qinghai province on the Tibetan Plateau. In China, deserts cover about 25% of the land, with desertification affecting around 400 million people. Officials include Qinghai province among the regions “most severely impacted by desertification,” reports XinhuaNet.
Other research describes the region as “the cradle of Asian rivers and the habitat of rare species” that is “fragile and undergoing unprecedented changes with the process of climate warming.”
Amidst the push to address desertification, desert-based solar parks have drawn attention in China for their effect on the local environment. The panels influence the impacts of wind, sun, and moisture on the area’s ecology to promote plant growth and reduce erosion.
Other research has already described these changes, but the recent study aimed to establish a set of indicators to quantify them. The researchers used a Driving-Pressure-Status-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework, to help policymakers identify causes, effects, and solutions to environmental issues in a structured way.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency explains how the stages of a DPSIR framework measure:
• Drivers, often defined as “socio-economic sectors that fulfill human needs”;
• Pressures, or human activities spurred by the drivers, which “exert pressure” on the environment, like land use changes;
• Status, or changes to the state of the environment resulting from pressures;
• Impacts that reflect changes in the “quality or functioning of an ecosystem” that affects humans;
• Responses, or the decisions and actions of humans following from the impacts.
Within this framework, the researchers explain that the solar park’s development drove rising rates of population growth, urbanization, per capita GDP, and energy conservation. These indicators, which did not rise to a comparable degree in surrounding control areas, reflected job growth directly linked to the project and its integration with local agriculture, as well as the solar park’s contributions to energy conservation and decarbonization.
Pressures were measured by changes in the land surface’s radiation exposure and evaporation. Both indicators decreased, showing that the solar panels lowered how much these factors affected the environment. The state of the environment—measured by indicators linked to soil properties and microbial and plant growth—correspondingly indicated that the project had a “positive impact on the regulation of ecological and environmental effects,” the researchers found.
The changes affected ecosystem functions, shown by increases in indicators like available soil nutrients, above-ground organic matter, and soil carbon sequestration—an important measure, the researchers write, because the soil’s capacity to store carbon is important to climate mitigation.
The response measures from government and society showed higher regulatory capacity, environmental investment, photovoltaic value, and erosion control. The researchers say these measures indicate that measures are being taken to improve the site’s ecological and environmental conditions.
But despite these benefits, the ecological system remains under “tremendous pressure,” they warn. Lower scores for indicators like fungal abundance and daily photosynthetic radiation suggest that “more comprehensive response measures” are needed to enhance the region’s ecological health.
