Advertisement

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Solar Power

Air pollution hurts solar energy production in China

by Andrea Widener
July 11, 2019 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 97, Issue 28

Photo of a field of solar panels with city buildings in the background and a gray sky.
Credit: Shutterstock
Cleaning up air pollution in China could yield a 12–13% increase in the country's solar energy production.

China has the largest solar energy production capacity in the world. But a new study by European and Chinese scientists shows that capacity is greatly hindered by air pollution (Nat. Energy 2019, DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0412-4). As of 2017, China has the capacity to produce 130 GW of solar photovoltaic electricity, and it plans to increase that to 400 GW by 2030. However, human-caused aerosol emissions and changes in cloud cover have reduced surface radiation levels by 10–15% between 1960 and 2015, the researchers found. If China introduced strict pollution controls for sulfur dioxide and black carbon and limited fossil-fuel consumption, it could return to 1960s solar radiation levels, which would increase solar electricity generation by 12–13%. That increase, applied to China’s 2016 solar photovoltaic capacity, translates to an economic benefit worth $1.9 billion in increased solar production. China is already making progress toward reducing its air pollution, so the “findings should be interpreted as a possible cobenefit of air pollution control in China,” the researchers write.

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.