How many PV power stations are there in the northwest?

Of the 309 PV station clusters (hereafter, PV parks), the top 7% largest ones account for 61% of the total area of PV power stations, indicating that PV power stations in the Northwest tend to be developed in the form of large-scale centralized PV parks.

What is a photovoltaic power station?

A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power.

How many PV parks are there in the northwestern provinces?

To analyze the spatial distribution characteristics of PV power stations in the five northwestern provinces, we aggregated the adjacent 3 km of the scattered PV power station to a PV agglomeration and counted it as a PV park (Fig. 7). In total, we obtained 309 PV parks.

What land is used for PV power stations in China?

Land used for PV power stations were mainly converted from Gobi desert, sandy land, sparse and moderate grassland. The focus of China’s PV industry is shifting from the northwest to the south and east. Many leading countries are boosting renewables, especially solar energy, as a major way to mitigate future energy crises and climate change.

What is a PV power station?

A PV power station usually consists of a number of PV arrays, which are manifested by a large number of crystalline silicon panels arranged in close proximity.

Why are PV power stations growing in China?

Energy policies are the main factor driving the rapid development of PV power stations in China (Fig. 10 a) (Yang et al., 2020). Since 2004, China’s PV production has experienced tremendous growth due to the dramatic increase in demand for PV in European countries and reached number one in the world in 2007 (Xu, 2016).