Where are solar power plants located in China?

In contrast, smaller solar power plants (<100MW) are densely scattered in areas closer to urban centers in central and eastern China, with distances ranging from 0 to 50 km, though only several small and remote solar power plants are distributed >50 km from urban areas in the southwest region of China such as Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan.

Where are solar power plants located?

From the perspective of geographical distribution, larger solar power plants (≥100MW) are sparsely distributed in remote locations from urban areas, particularly in the northwest region, notably Qinghai and Xinjiang.

Is there a spatiotemporal map of material stock in China's solar power plants?

To address the aforementioned gaps, we present an integrated framework combining diverse data sources including RS, GIS, and material intensity databases, to perform high-resolution spatiotemporal mapping of material stock in China's solar power plants from 2010 to 2019 at the solar power plant level.

How far away are solar power plants from urban areas?

According to our statistics, 61.4 GW, accounting for almost half of the total installed capacity of solar power plants with 5.6 Mt of PV panels, are away from urban areas >50 km, this is consistent with the distance found within urban areas for solar PV systems that have middle-grade resources (Herran and Ashina,2023).

How much centralized solar power plant capacity does China have?

China's installed centralized solar power plant capacity comprises over 60 % of the total installed capacity encompassing both centralized and distributed PV systems (National Energy Administration,2023).

How to identify the year of solar installation in China?

Then, we utilize 30-meter resolution Landsat time series images and employ the CCDC method to identify the installation year of each solar power plant, covering the period from 2010 to 2019, which is the decade with the most significant growth of PV installations in China.