Results

After performing the analysis, the remaining areas that fit our criteria were determined as being minimal. Most of the large flat areas above 5000m that were not within protected areas were actually lakes, which would be inappropriate for the construction of a solar power plant. The remaining suitable areas were of very small size, and were scattered across the area of concern. The total area of these locations combined is about 36km^2, nowhere near the 1.2x10^4 km^2 of land needed to power all of China outlined in the study. Some of the largest suitable areas are around one square kilometer, and these could be used for a smaller scale solar power plant for some electricity production, but would not be able to satisfy the bulk of the energy demands in China. Much of this 36km^2 is comprised of individual pixels, and given that we used a 90m Digital Elevation Model, each cell represents an area of 0.081km^2, nowhere near big enough for the construction of a major solar power plant.

The entire Tibetan Plateau in the north of the province was designated as a protected area, and early analysis indicated that some of the largest flat areas that could be used for a power plant fell within this region. If the Chinese government could still build here, there would potentially be a number of areas appropriate for the construction of a large scale solar power plant. There are almost no roads in this region, and given the mountinous terrain, accessing potential build sites here could be a major issue. If the protected status of this region is maintained, it is unlikely that solar power plants will be the solution to China's vast energy demands.

Areas in the south of the Tibetan province that were deemed suitable for construction of a solar power plant are also home to a relatively expansive network of roads. This would allow for easier access to the potential build sites, and would also allow for the construction of transmission lines. A least cost path analysis could be performed to determine the best path from potential power plant sites to Chinese urban centers, but for the purposes of our project we deemed locating suitable areas for the construction of a power plant to be more important. If any of these areas were built upon however, there are options for the transmission of energy from the power plants to China.

(Figure of Suitable Sites for Solar Plants in Tibet. Note: black dots are point symbols and do nor represent actual areas)

The largest limitation we encountered in our analysis was our inability to find areas below 5% in slope, rather than just totally flat areas as indicated by the aspect. The Kawajiri study outlined that areas with a slope of 5% and below, and of south facing aspect, could also be used, but data limitations forced us to only use areas that were totally flat as indicated by the aspect layer. When producing the slope map, the numerical values produced made no sense; we tried to produce the slope map to show slope as a percentage, but the resulting cell values were in the millions. If we had more time, we might have been able to deal with this problem, but due to time limitations we had to settle for areas that are merely flat. It is also worth noting that of the 36 square kilometers found suitable for a solar power plant in the analysis, many of these areas are composed of individual cells, which have an aspect that is flat on average. There could be significant variation in the aspect and slope within these individual cells that would hinder the development of a solar power plant.