As of May this year, Guizhou's installed capacity of new energy has exceeded 20 million kilowatts, and tens of thousands of photovoltaic arrays and wind turbines are distributed throughout the province. At the same time of development, how to make the photovoltaic industry and Guizhou rocky desertification control go hand in hand, and give full play to the ecological function of the desert photovoltaic industry? The reporter walked into the new agricultural photovoltaic power station in Qianxi.
500,000 photovoltaic panels are neatly laid in the mountains, like blue armor, shining in the sun, and the surrounding barren mountains grow new green, outlining a patchwork of "new rural scenes". This is an agricultural photovoltaic power station built by CNNC Huineng on the rocky desertification barren mountain in Dingxin Township, Qianxi City, covering an area of more than 5,000 acres, which started construction on February 20, 2022 and was connected to the grid for power generation on September 1 of the same year. Yu Hongchao, deputy manager of the safety production department of China Nuclear Huineng Guizhou Company, told reporters that the project has a total installed capacity of 200,000 kilowatts, and after being connected to the grid, it will provide 250 million kWh of clean electricity for the grid every year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 175,100 tons per year compared with coal-fired power plants.
Dingxin Township used to be one of the most serious townships in Qianxi City, with broken land and poor soil, and for a long time it could only "look at the sky" for food. As the rocky desertification becomes more and more serious, more than 13,000 acres of land in Dingxin Township have been "swallowed" by stones, and the villagers have fallen into a vicious circle of getting poorer and harder. Lu Xun, deputy head of Dingxin Township, said that when the land is abandoned, rocky desertification will become more and more serious, fewer and fewer people will farm the land, and the income of the masses will decrease again and again.
How to get out of the vicious circle and reuse land?
On February 20, 2022, the first phase of the new phase of the agricultural photovoltaic power station in Dingxinxiang, Qianxi, was settled, turning the "Shiyilu", which has not been used for many years, into a "power station". In order to alleviate the contradiction between energy development and land use, the construction team is building photovoltaic and ecological governance. According to Hu Sen, the engineering management department of China Nuclear Huineng Guizhou Company, the shelterbelt formed by the forest can change the wind direction, improve the microclimate of the forest network, and play a role in preventing wind and fixing sand, which is why soil erosion in rocky desertification areas is serious. The company has set up windbreak and soil fixation facilities along the road slope of the photovoltaic area and built a soil and water conservation forest network, which can weaken the wind force, reduce the wind speed and improve the soil erosion resistance.
The mountains are high and the slopes are steep, and the land is broken. Long-term soil erosion has exposed the surface stones, so stripping the topsoil and covering the bare soil with green is an important measure to protect vegetation resources and reduce soil erosion. The construction team cooperates with the expert team to conduct a comprehensive investigation and research and on-site survey of the photovoltaic farm area, and verify the thickness, area, and stacking location of the stripping. In accordance with the principle of "stripping and using, taking advantage of the superior and supplementing the superior", 230 cubic meters of topsoil stripping and soil covering remediation in the photovoltaic area were finally realized, and 111.32 hectares of land were prepared. Hu Sen, the engineering management department of China Nuclear Huineng Guizhou Company, said that the original soil will be stripped and reused, and new high-quality soil will be added to cover the contaminated soil. No matter how anxious the construction is, it is necessary to do a good job in soil stripping and soil covering remediation to achieve the role of soil restoration. According to the data, the Qianxi photovoltaic project excavated 183,500 cubic meters and filled 174,600 cubic meters, basically realizing the balance of excavation and filling.
In addition, during the construction of the Dingxin agricultural photovoltaic power station in Qianxi, a total of 8.24 kilometers of new roads were built, 1.93 kilometers of roads were expanded, 13,000 meters of drainage ditches and 210 meters of drainage culverts were added in the road engineering area, 590 meters of drainage ditches were added in the booster station area, and 1 sedimentation pond was built.
Land preparation, soil covering, drainage... The other end of the trend of curbing the expansion of rocky desertification is connected to the purses of the local people. In addition to the way to increase income from land circulation, the idle land in the township should also be "revitalized". China Nuclear Huineng Guizhou Company, together with Guizhou Sangucao Chinese Herbal Medicine Company, researched and chose to plant Chinese medicinal materials in the rocky mountains according to local conditions, and hired local people to participate in planting and maintenance, so that the villagers could earn a few shares. According to statistics, more than 4,445 acres of land have been transferred in the photovoltaic field area. Li Shifeng, general manager of Guizhou Sancaogu Chinese Herbal Medicine Planting Co., Ltd., told reporters that planting herbaceous plants, shrubs and other vegetation between photovoltaic panel arrays can effectively prevent soil erosion, improve soil structure, and promote the ecological restoration of rocky desertification land. Dingxin Township rectification map spot general cultivated land of 450 acres, and choose to plant wormwood with strong adaptability to the growth environment in the arable area, 200 acres have been planted, and 3,000 plants per mu have been planted. In the later stage, the intercropping model will be adopted, and other medicinal materials will continue to be introduced, and the income per mu will reach about 20,000 yuan after five years. Li Shifeng, general manager of Guizhou Sancao Valley Chinese Herbal Medicine Planting Co., Ltd., introduced. Yu Hongchao, deputy manager of the safety production department of China Nuclear Huineng Guizhou Company, believes that the laying of photovoltaic modules, in addition to providing green energy, can also reduce the erosion of rocky desertification surface soil by storms and rains, and reduce the evaporation of surface water; The planting of crops can consolidate the surface soil layer, store rainwater, reduce infiltration, and accelerate the rate of soil formation in rocky desertification areas.
By reducing soil erosion and optimizing land use, the Qianxi Agricultural Photovoltaic Power Station realizes the coordinated development of rocky desertification control, ecological construction and industrial development, so that "idle soil" becomes "living soil", and barren mountains are dyed with new green.
Correspondent: Chen Qiuhua