Abstract
Using data observed at a photovoltaic (PV) power plant at the edge of the Gurbantünggüt Desert and at an undeveloped site in the Gobi desert in the summers of 2019 and 2020, we compared and analyzed the variations of radiation and surface albedo in various wavelength bands. Components of the solar radiation received by the surface of the arid regions of China were ranked infrared (IR) > visible (VIS) > ultraviolet (UV). The observed surface albedo of the PV site was significantly lower than that at the undeveloped desert site. The mean surface albedo values for shortwave broadband (SW), IR, VIS, and UV at the PV site were 0.14, 0.15, 0.13, and 0.08, respectively, and the corresponding values for the undeveloped site were 0.22, 0.23, 0.23, and 0.10, respectively. We also developed a parametric formula for the surface albedo at the PV plant given data observed on typical sunny days. We then validated the parametric formula using observations taken in the summers of 2019 and 2020. The results showed that the parametric formula could precisely simulate variations of the surface albedo and reflected radiation of the PV plant.
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Acknowledgements
This study was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFB1502800) and the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41875017).
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This study was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFB1502800) and the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41875017).
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Jiang Ying: software, validation, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, and visualization. Zhenchao Li: conceptualization, methodology, project administration, and funding acquisition. Liwei Yang: validation and investigation. Yue Jiang: validation and investigation. Xiaoqing Gao: conceptualization, methodology, validation, investigation, resources, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.
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Ying, J., Li, Z., Yang, L. et al. The characteristics and parameterizations of the surface albedo of a utility-scale photovoltaic plant in the Gobi Desert. Theor Appl Climatol 151, 1469–1481 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04337-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04337-5