Conclusion
Despite the fact Tibet has
high solar irradiation and low temperatures conducive to efficiently
generating solar power, few potential sites for a solar power plant
were found. This is due to a number of reasons. Only land that would
be absolutely ideal to build on by our criteria was chosen, so flat
land, not in a protected area of any kind, on limited land cover
type, and only over 5000m. Once a site could be found technologies
employed by Desertec could also be used. For example we know that the
power generated by solar plants can transported over distances
without loss of energy (http://www.desertec.org/).
This was an important consideration when choosing to build in China
due to the size of the country and distance between large settlements
and potential areas of power generation (the Himalayas).
The final map highlights pixels (90m x 90m) that fulfil the aforementioned criteria (slope, land cover, protected areas and elevation) . The pixels highlighted show that the area of land is limited (36km2), and mostly unconnected. This can be seen by referring to the final map. However many areas have groups of these dots and it is possible that a slight change in the criteria would result in amalgamation of the dots into a larger continuous area suitable for building a solar power plant on. Possibly the most likely criteria to change to achieve this would be slope, if a slight degree of slope were allowed this could make a large difference to the results.
Another possibility to increase the area of land for solar power generation is land use designation. The data for protected areas ruled out a large area in the North of Tibet. This area is the Tibetan Plateau. Earlier analysis had shown that the area had a number of potential sites. Ruling out the Tibetan Plateau was done to minimise conflict between the solar power plant and other groups such as conservationists or the tourist industry. However because China consumes such large amounts of energy (Yang 2011), sacrificing a small part of the Tibetan Plateau for the rest of the environment and impacts of fossil fuel consumption such as air pollution might be something to consider for China.
This project focused on Tibet as a possible location for solar plant to feed Chinas energy demand. There may be political implications in locating a solar power plant in Tibet to fuel China given the on-going political tensions in between the two. Figure one shows potential of solar power generation when considering the effect of temperature. We chose Tibet because finding land suitable for building on in the mountainous Himalayas would be unrealistic but the areas of very high solar potential (red areas) reach into Tibet (Kawajiri et al. 2011). Expanding from Tibet into the whole of China for sites could be a possibility. By looking at the orange areas from figure one it is possible to see that other areas of China have high potential to generate significant solar energy too.
Some ways to expand or improve on the work done on this project were outlined above in slope and land use designation. Further analysis might include more data sets such as accessing and employing data on temperature and solar radiation. The paper (Kawajiri et al. 2011) that was key in the development of this project included maps displaying such information (see figure 1.) By using this data in Arcmap, a more accurate map for locations of solar power plants could be generated. Future analyses may also consider collecting the data needed to perform a multi-criteria analysis with fuzzy membership and weighted factors. To do an MCE it would be essential to calculate the slope, so the problem of the DEM would have to be resolved. Furthermore, additional analysis could extend the use of this project. For example, the data and maps we produced could be used to find a least cost path from a power plat location to a town or city.
In summary, the analysis produced a limited amount of potential large-scale photovoltaic power production sites, but different aspects of the analysis could be tweaked to increase the total suitable area.
The final map highlights pixels (90m x 90m) that fulfil the aforementioned criteria (slope, land cover, protected areas and elevation) . The pixels highlighted show that the area of land is limited (36km2), and mostly unconnected. This can be seen by referring to the final map. However many areas have groups of these dots and it is possible that a slight change in the criteria would result in amalgamation of the dots into a larger continuous area suitable for building a solar power plant on. Possibly the most likely criteria to change to achieve this would be slope, if a slight degree of slope were allowed this could make a large difference to the results.
Another possibility to increase the area of land for solar power generation is land use designation. The data for protected areas ruled out a large area in the North of Tibet. This area is the Tibetan Plateau. Earlier analysis had shown that the area had a number of potential sites. Ruling out the Tibetan Plateau was done to minimise conflict between the solar power plant and other groups such as conservationists or the tourist industry. However because China consumes such large amounts of energy (Yang 2011), sacrificing a small part of the Tibetan Plateau for the rest of the environment and impacts of fossil fuel consumption such as air pollution might be something to consider for China.
This project focused on Tibet as a possible location for solar plant to feed Chinas energy demand. There may be political implications in locating a solar power plant in Tibet to fuel China given the on-going political tensions in between the two. Figure one shows potential of solar power generation when considering the effect of temperature. We chose Tibet because finding land suitable for building on in the mountainous Himalayas would be unrealistic but the areas of very high solar potential (red areas) reach into Tibet (Kawajiri et al. 2011). Expanding from Tibet into the whole of China for sites could be a possibility. By looking at the orange areas from figure one it is possible to see that other areas of China have high potential to generate significant solar energy too.
Some ways to expand or improve on the work done on this project were outlined above in slope and land use designation. Further analysis might include more data sets such as accessing and employing data on temperature and solar radiation. The paper (Kawajiri et al. 2011) that was key in the development of this project included maps displaying such information (see figure 1.) By using this data in Arcmap, a more accurate map for locations of solar power plants could be generated. Future analyses may also consider collecting the data needed to perform a multi-criteria analysis with fuzzy membership and weighted factors. To do an MCE it would be essential to calculate the slope, so the problem of the DEM would have to be resolved. Furthermore, additional analysis could extend the use of this project. For example, the data and maps we produced could be used to find a least cost path from a power plat location to a town or city.
In summary, the analysis produced a limited amount of potential large-scale photovoltaic power production sites, but different aspects of the analysis could be tweaked to increase the total suitable area.
