While most PV projects in China are land-based due to solar energy's dispersed nature, there's an increasing focus on maximizing ‘water’ resources like oceans, lakes, reservoirs, and subsidence zones to improve land use efficiency .
With the continuous growth in the number and scale of installed PV power stations in China, the demand for land dedicated to PV is also on the rise . By the year 2060, it is projected that China's PV installed capacity will exceed 3 billion kW [5, 6].
Land is a fundamental resource for the deployment of PV systems, and PV power projects are established on various types of land. As of the end of 2022, China has amassed an impressive 390 million kW of installed PV capacity, occupying approximately 0.8 million km2 of land .
Specifically, the power generation value of PV land in China ranges from 1.90×10 5 to 5.09×10 5 CNY/hm 2; the production value brought by agricultural development ranges from 6.28×10 4 to 1.53×10 5 CNY/hm 2, and the value of ecosystem services provided by the land ranges from 2.43×10 4 to 8.95×10 4 CNY/hm 2.
The researchers first found that the physical potential of solar PV, which includes how many solar panels can be installed and how much solar energy they can generate, in China reached 99.2 petawatt-hours in 2020.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative In recent years, China has become not just a large producer but a major market for solar photovoltaics (PV), increasing interest in solar electricity prices in China.