How Does Xinjiang's Photovoltaic Panels Generate Electricity in Winter When It Snows?

Come to a photovoltaic base in Shihezi City, Xinjiang, the surrounding goose feather snow, the temperature fell to minus ten degrees Celsius, but some of the photovoltaic panels on the snow has melted part of it.

This is thanks to the double-glass components so that the photovoltaic panels double-sided power generation.

According to the base of the relevant person in charge of Wang Runsheng introduction, the sunlight through the snow, land diffuse reflection to the back of the photovoltaic panels, on the one hand, solar energy can be converted into electricity, on the other hand, the heat generated by the power generation process will melt the photovoltaic panels on the front of the snow. "Our base covers an area of more than 30,000 acres . Because of the low efficiency of manual clearing of large areas, the use of double-sided double-glazed photovoltaic panels can reduce snow cover and can effectively improve the efficiency of power generation in snowy days."

"If a region's power generation is monitored to be abnormal, the operation and maintenance personnel can patrol the drone and combine it with infrared map analysis in order to locate the faulty PV panels and carry out timely maintenance." Wang Runsheng said, "This approach has a wider field of view and higher accuracy than manual patrols, and less than 10 people can complete the daily inspection and maintenance of the entire base project."

Project data show that the photovoltaic base investment totalled 4.8 billion yuan, equipped with a booster station, electrochemical energy storage system, etc. Construction began at the beginning of this year, and nearly all of them are connected to the grid. It is expected to provide around 2.1 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, accounting for about 4.5 percent of Shihezi's 2022 power generation, equivalent to an annual saving of about 650,000 tonnes of standard coal.

China's Xinjiang has abundant sunshine and solar energy resources. In recent years, Xinjiang to speed up the pace of photovoltaic industry layout, from equipment manufacturing, industrial support and other aspects of force, help solar energy resources into development advantages. As of early December, Xinjiang's new energy scale ranked first in the country.