Characteristics and impact index of soil and water loss in photovoltaic power generation projects in Gobi Desert Area

By taking nine typical photovoltaic power generation projects built in the Hexi Corridor for an example, we compared the characteristics of water and soil loss in different partitions of these projects. The impact index of soil and water loss for photovoltaic power generation projects in the Gobi Desert Area was calculated and the range of impacting index for the Gobi Desert Areas in China was determined through calculation, analysis and grading of the impact index of soil and water loss. Through calculation, the proportion of disturbed surface area in all partitions of photovoltaic power generation projects followed the order from big to small as photoelectic cell board area (68.72%) > road area (27.17%) > other area (1.77%) > management area (1.18%) > construction camp area (1.15%); the proportion of excavated amount in all partitions ranked from big to small in the order of photoelectic cell board area (65.09%) > road area (30.45%) > management area (1.82%) > construction camp area (1.48%) > other area (1.15%). Therefore, the road area and the photoelectic cell board area of photovoltaic power generation projects were the most serious zones suffering from disturbed engineering construction, and the building projects like footing excavation, transport and filling in these zones were also the key causes of water and soil loss. The value of soil and water loss impact index in photovoltaic power generation projects of the Gobi Desert was 0.419.