Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Hydrosphere
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2024.1528134
This article is part of the Research Topic Advances in GIS and Remote Sensing Applications in the Monitoring of Regional Hydrology, Ecology and Environment View all articles

Analysis of Regional Photovoltaic Power Generation Suitability in China Using Multi-source Data

Provisionally accepted
Hongju Tong Hongju Tong 1,2Ziyu Lv Ziyu Lv 2Junyi Jiang Junyi Jiang 1Xingguo Gao Xingguo Gao 1Ziqing Wang Ziqing Wang 2Chaoshuai You Chaoshuai You 1Kun Xu Kun Xu 2Yuhang Wu Yuhang Wu 2Yingbao Yang Yingbao Yang 2Xin Pan Xin Pan 2*
  • 1 Shandong Electric Power Engineering Consulting Institute Corp., LTD, Jinan, Shandong Province, China
  • 2 Hohai University, Nanjing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation, a crucial part of global renewable energy, has been advancing swiftly, yet effective promotion depends not only on enhancing generation efficiency but also on thorough evaluations of construction suitability. This research developed a subjective-objective evaluation framework that integrates the Analytic Hierarchy Process and the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation method to comprehensively analyze the suitability of photovoltaic power station locations in China. Based on long-term meteorological data and remote sensing products, solar radiation and photovoltaic potential data were calculated, then a suitability of photovoltaic generation was evaluated. Our Findings revealed that from 2000 to 2020, China's average annual solar radiation was 5896.437 MJ•m⁻², with total photovoltaic generation amounting to 1.10726×10¹⁵ KWh.Research discovered that in 2020, the average score of photovoltaic construction suitability in China was 0.1058, and suitable areas comprised 51.1% of the national territory. Regions with high suitability for photovoltaic development were mainly concentrated in Northwest China (like Xinjiang and Gansu Province), with suitability scores exceeding 7.5 and average annual generation surpassing 213 KWh, suggesting that these areas possessed rich solar resources and extensive land suitability for large-scale photovoltaic generation.By contrast, southeastern coastal and southern provinces, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian, had lower suitability scores (<3.5) and annual average generation less than 19.2262 kWh, primarily due to constrained land availability and decreased solar radiation.These results emphasize the critical need to prioritize photovoltaic development in Northwest China, where favorable conditions present considerable potential.

    Keywords: Suitability analysis, Solar energy resources, Photovoltaic power generation, Multi-source data, Comprehensive assessment

    Received: 14 Nov 2024; Accepted: 31 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tong, Lv, Jiang, Gao, Wang, You, Xu, Wu, Yang and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xin Pan, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.