TY - JOUR
T1 - The Potential of Photovoltaics to Power the Belt and Road Initiative
AU - Chen, Shi
AU - Lu, Xi
AU - Miao, Yufei
AU - Deng, Yu
AU - Nielsen, Chris P
AU - Elbot, Noah
AU - Wang, Yuanchen
AU - Logan, Kathryn G
AU - McElroy, Michael B
AU - Hao, Jiming
PY - 2019/8/21
Y1 - 2019/8/21
N2 - Construction of carbon-intensive energy infrastructure is well underway under the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), challenging the global climate target. Regionally abundant solar power could provide an alternative for electricity generation. An integrative spatial model was developed to evaluate the technical potential of solar photovoltaic power. The influence of impacting factors was quantified systematically on an hourly basis. Results suggest that the electricity potential for the BRI region reaches 448.9 PWh annually, 41.3 times the regional demand for electricity in 2016. Tapping 3.7% of the potential through deploying 7.8 TW capacity could satisfy the regional electricity demand projected for 2030, requiring an investment of approximately 11.2 trillion 2017 USD and a commitment in land area of 88,426 km2, approximately 0.9% of China’s total. Countries endowed with 70.7% of the overall potential consume only 30.1% of regional electricity. The imbalance underscores the advantage of regional cooperation and investments in interconnected grids.
AB - Construction of carbon-intensive energy infrastructure is well underway under the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), challenging the global climate target. Regionally abundant solar power could provide an alternative for electricity generation. An integrative spatial model was developed to evaluate the technical potential of solar photovoltaic power. The influence of impacting factors was quantified systematically on an hourly basis. Results suggest that the electricity potential for the BRI region reaches 448.9 PWh annually, 41.3 times the regional demand for electricity in 2016. Tapping 3.7% of the potential through deploying 7.8 TW capacity could satisfy the regional electricity demand projected for 2030, requiring an investment of approximately 11.2 trillion 2017 USD and a commitment in land area of 88,426 km2, approximately 0.9% of China’s total. Countries endowed with 70.7% of the overall potential consume only 30.1% of regional electricity. The imbalance underscores the advantage of regional cooperation and investments in interconnected grids.
KW - belt and road initiative
KW - solar PV
KW - electricity potential
KW - capacity potential
KW - capacity factor
KW - green BRI
KW - grid interconnection
KW - energy infrastructure
KW - solar power potential
KW - solar system modeling
UR - https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(19)30275-2?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2542435119302752%3Fshowall%3Dtrue
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/potential-photovoltaics-power-belt-road-initiative
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.06.006
U2 - 10.1016/j.joule.2019.06.006
DO - 10.1016/j.joule.2019.06.006
M3 - Article
SN - 2542-4351
VL - 3
SP - 1895
EP - 1912
JO - Joule
JF - Joule
IS - 8
ER -
