As we all know, 70% of the earth is ocean and 30% is land. The world's desert area accounts for about 21% of the world's total land area (about 31.4 million square kilometers).
In our country, the desert area reaches 1.3 million square kilometers, accounting for about 13.5% of the country's total area. How to make good use of these areas has become a big problem.
There is currently a saying that covering 1% of my country’s desert with solar panels can solve the electricity needs of the people across the country. Is this statement true? If you can, why not take advantage of it?
Energy Crisis
The current energy crisis is approaching fiercely, and the world is actively looking for solutions. The most obvious change that people can feel is the power cuts.
After the energy crisis emerged, my country first imposed restrictions on industrial power consumption in some areas, and even limited power for civilian use in the northeastern region some time ago, which seriously affected the normal life of residents.
In order to cope with the energy crisis, the world's energy system is also facing a rapid transformation towards a low-carbon, efficient and environmentally friendly energy supply system. The main strategy adopted by our country is to develop clean energy and new energy, especially the development of clean energy. There are many types of clean energy, such as hydropower, wind power, tidal energy, geothermal energy, solar energy, etc., which are all clean energy sources.
There is nothing but sand in the desert. As one of the few projects that can thrive in the desert, solar energy has also received a lot of attention in recent years. So taking 1% of China's desert area and installing solar energy can ensure the electricity consumption of more than one billion people in China. Is this really possible?
Power budget
The desert area of our country is 1.3 million square kilometers. 1% of 1.3 million is 13,000 square kilometers. Looking at the current power generation efficiency of solar panels, the power generation efficiency of one square meter is 150 watts, and one square kilometer is 150,000 square kilometers. Watts, and 13,000 square kilometers is 1.95 billion kilowatts, which is not a small number. Maybe many people have no idea about the number 1.95 billion kilowatts.
Take 2020 as an example. The total capacity of my country's full-scale generators is 2.2 billion kilowatts, and 2.2 billion includes civil electricity and industrial electricity. The country's domestic electricity consumption alone has not reached the full 2.2 billion kilowatts. Based on data alone , the project of using solar energy to generate electricity in desert areas is very attractive. So why hasn’t solar power been widely used in deserts?
First of all, the cost
The cost of solar panels is actually not high, but it is not a small expense to install these equipment on a large scale in the desert. The conditions in the desert are harsh and construction is difficult. At the same time, the solar panels need to be formed Only scale can achieve good results. Even if you build 1% of the desert, it is very difficult to achieve it now.
Moreover, as a single piece of equipment, the maintenance cost of solar panels is also very high, not to mention that in places like deserts where there is no infrastructure construction, transportation has also become a problem. The funds and manpower required for this project are quite huge, and it is not as much as imagined. Simple.
Power generation is not stable enough
In addition to high financial support, solar energy also has important technical flaws. The biggest problem is that power generation is unstable, with more power generation during the day and less power generation at night, and more power generation on sunny days and less power generation on cloudy days. If we rely entirely on solar power generation, then our electricity consumption will really depend on God's face, and the off-peak season of solar power generation is just opposite to the electricity consumption season.
Sand dust and strong winds are also unfavorable factors. Therefore, the construction site must be selected in an area with low frequency of sandstorms, floating dust and strong winds and low wind speed, and avoid wind outlets and wind areas.
Water Resources Issues
In 2009, Europe launched the Deserte Project, which mainly uses solar resources in parts of Africa and the Middle East to generate electricity to meet Europe's electricity needs. But after five years of hard work, the idea finally failed. Solar power generation, like some conventional thermal power generation, requires a large amount of cooling water to condense the steam after it passes through the steam turbine .Taking the solar thermal power plant in the Mojave Desert as an example, 3,000 liters of water are consumed for every 1 megawatt hour of electricity produced, but water in the desert is hard to find.
In China, solar thermal air flow technology continues to mature, which has many advantages compared with traditional power generation. Solar thermal air flow power generation does not require fuel and precious cooling water sources. It can fully absorb both direct radiation and scattered radiation, and the ground surface heat storage The media can be obtained locally, and operation and maintenance costs are relatively low. But on the other hand, the frequency of wind and sand in the Gobi Desert in Xinjiang is high, so windproof design is required. At the same time, the impact of wind and sand on the turbine generator and the heat collecting shed, as well as how to clean the heat collecting shed, must also be considered.
Biodiversity may be threatened
A U.S. Department of the Interior assessment shows that A solar project under construction in California threatens the living environment of more than 3,000 endangered desert tortoises, and at least 700 hatchlings may die. The federal government ordered Bright Source Energy Company to halt construction of 2/3 of its projects. Kelly Wax, a spokesperson for
Energy, said in a statement that the Bureau of Land Management's assessment "is inconsistent with the actual number of desert tortoises found at the project site." "The desert tortoise staging areas are outside the project or were avoided when we designed the project." area". Energy companies previously estimated that the survival of about 38 desert tortoises could be affected.
The company's new assessment suggests that up to 162 adult turtles will be captured and relocated. Associated Press reported that solar energy projects aim to seek clean energy to protect the environment, but may be at the expense of wildlife such as desert tortoises. This poses a dilemma not only for energy companies but also for environmentalists.
If you want to develop solar power in the future, you may need to do a good job in balancing power generation, and ensuring the safe operation of the power grid is your top priority. At present, the installation rate of solar panels in our country is increasing year by year. It can be seen that the utilization of solar panels is developing very fast in our country. In the future, solar power generation will need to cooperate with the more mature energy storage technology to minimize the impact of unstable fluctuations in solar power generation. At the same time, infrastructure construction in surrounding areas of the desert must be strengthened, otherwise it will be impossible to guarantee the solar power plant in the desert area. runs smoothly.
The development of solar energy will definitely be one of the main new forces in clean energy in the future. At present, the country is vigorously developing clean energy, and solar energy will naturally not be left behind.
However, its development progress will definitely be delayed compared with hydropower and wind power. The reason is not difficult to understand, that is, the stability of solar power generation is insufficient and cannot be used as the primary clean energy development, even if solar power generation efficiency is very high.
Although the power generation efficiency of hydropower and wind power may not be as high as that of solar power, they are better because of their low cost, easy development and stability. In the future, China will complete the transformation of the old and new energy systems. In this process, clean energy will naturally choose stable fields first, waiting for hydropower and When wind power development matures, the focus can be shifted to solar energy, and multiple parties can cooperate to ensure the electricity consumption of the people.
