A comparative study on surface energy flux characteristics of photovoltaic power station in Gobi in summer

We used the data of observational site in photovoltaic power plant (PV site) and reference site in summer 2020 to compare the characteristics of surface energy flux of PV site and Gobi underlying surface. We defined the photovoltaic virtual flux and calculated the proportion of photovoltaic power generation in the net radiation by using daily power generation and generating hours. The results show that the net radiation of PV site was larger than that of reference site throughout the day. Compared with the reference site, the sensible heat flux and latent heat flux of PV site increased by 6.0% and 53.5%, respectively. Sensible heat flux, soil heat flux, latent heat flux, and photovoltaic virtual flux accounted for 43.2%, 14.5%, 8.6%, and 6.1% of the net radiation, respectively. The sensible heat accounted for the largest proportion; the energy balance closure increased from 0.60 to 0.67 in the daytime.