Impacts of large-scale Saharan solar farms on the global terrestrial carbon cycle
(2023) In Environmental Research Letters 18(10).- Abstract
Amassing the available solar energy over the Sahara desert, through the installation of a large-scale solar farm, would satisfy the world’s current electricity needs. However, such land use changes may affect the global carbon cycle, possibly offsetting mitigation efforts. Here a fully coupled Earth System model EC-Earth was used to investigate the impact of a Saharan solar farm on the terrestrial carbon cycle, simulated with prescribed reduced surface albedo approximating the albedo effect of photovoltaic solar panels over the Sahara desert. The resulting changes to the carbon cycle were an enhancement of the carbon sink across Northern Africa, particularly around the Sahel but a simultaneous weakening of the carbon sink in the Amazon... (More)
Amassing the available solar energy over the Sahara desert, through the installation of a large-scale solar farm, would satisfy the world’s current electricity needs. However, such land use changes may affect the global carbon cycle, possibly offsetting mitigation efforts. Here a fully coupled Earth System model EC-Earth was used to investigate the impact of a Saharan solar farm on the terrestrial carbon cycle, simulated with prescribed reduced surface albedo approximating the albedo effect of photovoltaic solar panels over the Sahara desert. The resulting changes to the carbon cycle were an enhancement of the carbon sink across Northern Africa, particularly around the Sahel but a simultaneous weakening of the carbon sink in the Amazon basin. This is observed through spatial pattern changes to the values of net biome production (NBP), more evident during Northern Hemisphere summer season. NBP changes are contributed by competing responses in the net primary production and heterotrophic respiration rates. These changes to carbon exchange correspond to a wetter and warmer climate occurring in Northern Africa and a drier and warmer climate in the Amazon, with stronger driving effects of precipitation. Due to these coupled responses and complex teleconnections, thorough investigation of remote impacts of solar farms are needed to avoid unintended consequences on the terrestrial carbon cycle.
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- author
- Power, Katherine ; Lu, Zhengyao LU and Zhang, Qiong
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023-10-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- carbon cycle, future climate, greening Sahara, solar panels
- in
- Environmental Research Letters
- volume
- 18
- issue
- 10
- article number
- 104009
- publisher
- IOP Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85173613712
- ISSN
- 1748-9326
- DOI
- 10.1088/1748-9326/acf7d8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
- id
- a5a8ce6a-8ffd-4aed-9161-6b292f02c08d
- date added to LUP
- 2023-12-07 15:07:10
- date last changed
- 2023-12-07 15:08:19
@article{a5a8ce6a-8ffd-4aed-9161-6b292f02c08d,
abstract = {{<p>Amassing the available solar energy over the Sahara desert, through the installation of a large-scale solar farm, would satisfy the world’s current electricity needs. However, such land use changes may affect the global carbon cycle, possibly offsetting mitigation efforts. Here a fully coupled Earth System model EC-Earth was used to investigate the impact of a Saharan solar farm on the terrestrial carbon cycle, simulated with prescribed reduced surface albedo approximating the albedo effect of photovoltaic solar panels over the Sahara desert. The resulting changes to the carbon cycle were an enhancement of the carbon sink across Northern Africa, particularly around the Sahel but a simultaneous weakening of the carbon sink in the Amazon basin. This is observed through spatial pattern changes to the values of net biome production (NBP), more evident during Northern Hemisphere summer season. NBP changes are contributed by competing responses in the net primary production and heterotrophic respiration rates. These changes to carbon exchange correspond to a wetter and warmer climate occurring in Northern Africa and a drier and warmer climate in the Amazon, with stronger driving effects of precipitation. Due to these coupled responses and complex teleconnections, thorough investigation of remote impacts of solar farms are needed to avoid unintended consequences on the terrestrial carbon cycle.</p>}},
author = {{Power, Katherine and Lu, Zhengyao and Zhang, Qiong}},
issn = {{1748-9326}},
keywords = {{carbon cycle; future climate; greening Sahara; solar panels}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{10}},
number = {{10}},
publisher = {{IOP Publishing}},
series = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
title = {{Impacts of large-scale Saharan solar farms on the global terrestrial carbon cycle}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acf7d8}},
doi = {{10.1088/1748-9326/acf7d8}},
volume = {{18}},
year = {{2023}},
}