Assessment of carbon reduction and sink enhancement potential of photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration model

The energy oriented mine ecological restoration mode of photovoltaic+ecological restoration provides a breakthrough for alleviating the dilemma of photovoltaic land development and solving the urgent need for restoration of abandoned mining land. Taking a mining area in central Liaoning Province as an example, we established three photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration modes, including forest-photovoltaic complementary, agriculture-photovoltaic, and grass photovoltaic complementation. Combined with the life cycle assessment method, we calculated and assessed the potential of photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration in carbon reduction and sink enhancement. The average annual carbon reduction and sink increase was 514.93 t CO ·hm under the photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration mode, while the average annual carbon reduction per megawatt photovoltaic power station was 1242.94 t CO . The adoption of photovoltaic+ecological restoration mode in this mining area could make carbon reduction and sink enhan