A preliminary study on potential for very large-scale photovoltaic power generation (VLS-PV) system in the Gobi desert from economic and environmental viewpoints

A 100 MW very large-scale photovoltaic power generation (VLS-PV) system is designed assuming that it will be installed in the Gobi desert, which is one of the major deserts in the world. Array arrangement, array support, foundation, wiring, and so on are designed in detail. Then energy payback time (EPT), life-cycle CO2 emission rate and generation cost of the system are estimated based on the methodology of life-cycle analysis. As a result of the estimation, 1.7 year of EPT and 12 g C/kWh of CO2 emission rate are obtained. These show that VLS-PV in the Gobi desert would be very promising for the global energy and environmental issues. The generation cost is calculated at 8.6 cent/kWh assuming that PV module price is one US $/W and system lifetime is 30 years.