Introduction
Renewable energy is well known as the ideal solution to combat the forthcoming panic of global warming. Solar energy is the renewable energy resource that registers the production of most minor carbon energy sources. This has made the rate of solar installations in China substantially increase in the recent past. There is a growing tendency of people to adopt solar energy, which has contributed to an increase in solar operations and conservation. Several revolutions in the solar energy sector have quickly been successful and have made it easier for individuals and organizations to shift to solar energy. The influence of solar energy in climate change has impacted production. The advancement of solar energy has impacted climate change in the geography of China.
Global warming is approaching today due to the increased use of sources that emit carbon and the boundless consumption of energy sources. The intensified use of energy explains the significant change in climate globally. More power will be required for controlling the cooling system if there is an increase in temperatures. There is a prediction of growth in demand for cooling devices with a decrease in consumption for heating apparatus (Solaun & Cerdá, 2019). Global warming increases the requirement for solar energy since people are getting more conscious about reducing carbon impact. Solar power is an outstanding renewable energy source with minimal carbon release; the solar panels even take advantage of global warming since it works with sunlight.
Several pieces of research have tried to expose the influences of global warming on the manufacture of solar energy. High temperatures are not an assurance of growth in solar energy production as solar panels absorb energy from the sun, not temperatures. The impact of global warming depends on the country’s position and the kind of solar technology utilized (al Irsyad, Halog & Nepal, 2019).
Preparation is needed for the anticipated climate change, and solar energy is the best option for this. Solar suppliers need to keep pace with the invention and innovation of solar technology due to the expected increase in demand for cooling apparatus and the energy required to drive them (Kang, Wei & Liu, 2020). Nevertheless, the development of solar energy has a low influence on climate change. China is now an international spearhead in renewable energy having enormous resources and a massive capability for future growth.
Aims and Objectives
The aims and purpose of China adopting the use of solar energy include the following. It grants access to inexpensive and clean energy to reduce the greenhouse effect that results in global warming. Solar energy intends to improve energy effectiveness from source to utilization; it enables economic integration and collaboration and encourages sustainable development. Renewable resources minimize the intensity of carbon and energy, reduce the energy field’s effect on the atmosphere, and ensure cost competitiveness in energy production and regeneration. Solar energy aims to enhance environmental goals profitably through technology, improved capacity, and elevated cost-consciousness (Sweerts, Pfenninger & Yang, 2019).
Solar energy focuses on creating clean power from the sun to profit the atmosphere by decreasing greenhouse gases. Regulating greenhouse gases positively impacts climate change by reducing global heat levels; this helps in reducing health issues. Solar energy adoption intends to reduce pollutants in the air, decreasing the probability of health problems occurring.
Methods
Measuring the availability of solar radiation and other parameters requires a laboratory with skilled personnel; it is the laboratory that ensures data quality and reliability. Meteorological departments also provide a wide range of data on radiation and pollution. There are also direct ways of measuring solar radiation and its elements; they include diffuse and natural methods. The measurement of values is done using either ground-based mechanisms or satellites. These techniques are usually used together to authenticate each other (Wu, 2020). Ground-based instrumentations use a pyranometer whose data is from sufficiently maintained tools to offer detailed accounts of solar radiation values in the direct zone. There have been suggestions that deductions of daily deals past the discrete points lead to misinterpretation of deduced zones.
The pyranometer consists of a tiny darkened surface held inside a case such that when solar radiation reaches it, its temperature rises until the rate of heat loss matches the rate of heat gained by radiation (Peterson & Horton, 2017). Temperature rise elevates the thermal electromotive force that is gauged by a recorder. The pyrheliometer measures beam radiation and have a sensor fasted on the tube’s lower end with a diaphragm for only radiation from the sun to be captured by the sensor. For this to be realized, alignment is needed using a diopter. The darkened metal ribbon in the pyrheliometer absorbs radiant energy when exposed to sunshine.
Solar photovoltaics (PV) takes sunshine and translates it to electricity; solar panels then capture electricity. The solar panel has a load of atoms containing the nucleus. The nucleus has neutrons and protons; solar energy is functional when protons collide with electrons to produce an electric current. When connected from a solar panel, PV cells constitute a mechanism for recording solar energy. PV cells capture light to produce direct current (DC) electricity; solar inverters convert DC to alternating current (AC) to be used in powering homes. It is the net meter that now makes solar electricity comfortable to be used in homes.
The photoelectric sunshine recorder is another instrument used in recording solar radiation, and it measures the duration of bright sunshine at a location. It has two PV calls; one is shaded, and another is disclosed to the present solar radiation. Signal output is similar when there is no sunbeam radiation, and signal difference maximizes when there is beaming. It is the hours of bright sunlight that approximates how long average solar radiation can last, and it is the sunshine recorder that gathers such data (Creutzig, Agoston & Goldschmidt, 2017). The spherical glass holds recorder cards and when it is when brought to sunlight generates its image on the other side that burns a spot on the cards. The spot’s location depends on the sun’s movement across the sky and gets interrupted when the sun disappears.
The PV cells, solar thermal technology, and passive solar heating methods are used to collect solar energy. Solar thermal technology utilizes heat from the sun to produce vapor that can be applied to form electricity. Solar thermal has mirrors that focus rays from the sun to heat an unusual type of light. The heat generated from the liquid simmers water to produce vapor that rotates a turbine fixed to a generator to form electricity. Passive solar heating uses heat from the sun during sunny seasons by having windows face the side receiving more sunlight (Irfan, Elavarasan, Hao, 2021).
Analysis of solar data includes techno-economic analysis of PV technology and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP). This allows a decrease in the cost of energy found on installing a solar system and overall lifetime cost. China has PV incentive strategies with recommendations to promote the marketplace of home solar PV.
Some difficulties are encountered with the techniques used in gauging, recording, gathering, and examining information on solar energy. There is inefficiency since the cost of solar power is expensive yet unproductive. A lot of energy from the sun is not taken by solar systems, making it inefficient. The issue arises from the static nature of solar panels, making it hard to shift them to encounter direct rays from the sun (Hernandez, Armstrong & Burney, 2019). There is a problem of oversupply arising from providers manufacturing more solar panels. This occurred from manufacturers rushing to make renewable electricity resources after growth in solar energy installation. Increased manufacturing resulted in supplying to be excess than demand; this forced many firms out of business.
Analysis and Interpretation
China is dedicated to peak the release of carbon dioxide to encourage the substitution of coal with renewable energy. Solar energy is the kind of renewable energy that is the best choice to impact the upcoming energy supply and demand substantially. China is the primary supporter of the piercing growth in solar capacity. The collective solar capabilities of China are higher than that of other nations as a result of enough solar resources and unwavering support (Shahsavari & Akbari, 2018). Solar power in China has faced many difficulties that need to be overcome, especially during the changeover process. Recognizing these difficulties and opportunities is helpful to legislators and administrators to perform a prior assessment of policies.
The condition of energy changeover in China’s energy usage realized a massive growth in the recent past resulting in a noticeable increase in carbon emission. China’s actual energy consumption had been coal, and it had a high growth rate from year to year. Studies reveal that china led to the emission of carbon globally from human-caused activities. China has been attempting to reduce the utilization of coal to limit carbon emissions and lessen environmental deprivation. The use of other energy alternatives apart from coal is part of this determined strategy (Li & Huang, 2020). China has limited natural gas and has been using hydropower, but hydropower is near the maximum, making it challenging to increase significantly. Thus, there is a need to expand solar and wind energy volumes to serve as a substitution for coal.
Energy from solar and wind is produced unreasonably over time, and solar power production, when highly needed, is the suitable timing for it to meet energy demand better. Solar power can be made from where a user is located, and therefore it decreases transmission cost and supply funds.
It is anticipated for solar installation to exceed that of wind in China, indicating the remarkable capacity of solar power in china’s market. China also wants to change the form of solar energy from fixed to distributive due to the high need for energy. Recent results show that china turned out to be the largest installer of solar globally. In actuality, stationary solar capacity in China doubled the planned target, whereas distributive solar capacity was lower than expected.
The government of China has plans to make adjustments to the targets to limit the fast rise in stationary power (Nemet, 2019). Constructing stationary solar panels extensively results in problems for the power grid in spreading solar generation. Solar production cannot be utilized immediately and therefore has to be shortened, and it varies depending on the geographical location within China. Geographical patterns have been changing from time to time and influence the balanced growth of solar energy in China as it aids the supply to match demand.
Solar energy deployment requires constructive support designed by policymakers; consequently, China initiates some financial support strategies majorly executed by funding opening investment through pricing policies. It is China’s pricing drive that explains the fast development of solar power. Feed-In Tariff (FIT) may be the most vital pricing policy that boosts solar technologies in China. FIT assures that possessors of solar production amenities can obtain a set price from electricity delivered to the grid. The benefit of FIT is that it reports the income of power production throughout the entire lifespan.
FITs are now decreasing due to the considerable decrease in the cost of installation (Sansaniwal, Sharma & Mathur, 2018). With regards to the richness in solar resources, China is split into three regions. There are zones with improved solar radiation, and lengthier producing periods are projected to have lesser Levelized electricity costs (LCOE) since they can make additional electricity with the same capacity. There is usually a delay in FITs that results in escalating development of solar power in recent times. There are gaps present in regions, and recently installed fixed capacity can generate profits using technological advancement.
China intends to install powerful solar power capacity, and it is critical to stimulate and manage the stable and sustainable extension of solar energy. Excluding generators, the procedure of making policies requires reflecting the motivations of other participants, including grid firms and end-users. There are main challenges that are likely to pressure the ability to adopt solar power in China. There is a negative effect of high dividends of solar power on-grid firms. Grid companies that join more solar energy need to incur additional costs for integration and transmission (Noorollahi, Golshanfard, & Ansaripour, 2021).
To deal with global warming and environmental deprivation concurrently, china has executed aggressive strategies. China is projected to maintain fast growth in solar energy since it presently plays trivial roles. Industrial and political endeavors are required in handling mismatches between electricity and solar production across areas to reduce financial loads and realize the further extension of solar energy in China.
Some barriers prevent the success of the efforts put to combat challenges; these barriers have to be eliminated. The limitation degree of solar power is extreme in several regions where electricity is misused. Additional storage systems for energy must emerge to solve such cases. There exist political obstacles between regional power grids to transmit solar energy extensively to conquer inconsistency (Kouhestani, Byrne, & Johnson, 2019).
Encouraging association between different regions and placing points into a more extensive power grid serves as the best solution. Solar power has a substantial financial load that requires to be reduced; this can e realized by increasing the amount of renewable energy surcharge (Kabir, Kumar, & Kumar, 2018). Solar energy plays an essential role in global energy change and is projected to be the primary energy source in the future.
There is a quick rise in energy costs, making solar energy quicken, and excellent atmospheric and monetary advantages are brought using PV. The central government articulates several consultative policies to run the entire nation. Many factories have manufactured PV apparatus, which are perplexed by current problems. Different methods are used in outputting PV results; PV has a storage battery that needs carefully handled to advance charge and discharge capacity through study.
Conclusion
Findings on the influence of solar energy on climate change reveal that solar energy generation minimizes our leaning on coal as a source of energy, although its impact is low. The low effect it has on climate change helps mitigate global warming by reducing the discharge of greenhouse gases. Solar installations in rural areas have a low environmental impact on the local climate. Solar panels used in cities have large PVs that influence energy production and consumption (Urban, 2018). Solar panels absorb energy from the sun to generate operational energy in-housed either directly or as electricity. During absorption, they change the energy balance of the surface, and this impacts microclimate.
Study reveals that solar energy has resulted to little climate change. Large solar displays have shocking adverse effects that can result in variations in the local climate. The changes are minor when measured globally; solar and wind energy can result in local changes in temperature by modifying the quantity of solar radiation captured by the ground or by troubling airflow patterns in a region. Solar panels alter how the earth absorbs and reflects sunshine since the radiation absorbed by them cannot be taken in by the ground. This results in a cooling effect in areas neighboring the array. Assuming
Researchers admit that extensive installations of solar panels in times to come are impractical. While big solar panels can result in some substantial changes in the local climate, the global environment is not impacted. Human-caused global warming results in the emission of greenhouse gases into the air, leading to a rise in global temperatures even in rational climate situations. The study offers some understanding of how effects caused by local solar panels can be reduced. The outcome recommends impacts in towns are smaller than those in rural areas and can be combated by the island effect from cities (Oka, Mizutani, & Ashina, 2020).
Knowledge of how more extensive solar arrays may impact some regions helps policymakers develop resolutions on allocating panels in these areas. They decide on how to get ready for local changes that are likely to occur. Solar energy is associated with sources of error ranging from sensor configuration, data processing, writing down instrumentation, and sensor exposure. A good repetitive maintenance program minimizes the mistakes that arise from data processing and sensor display; upgrading the networks used in measuring solar radiation is critical. Systematic errors can be altered by making suitable modifications in the calibration constant.
Lessons Learnt
Harmonization between the central and regional governments together with other participants is essential. The central government, when taking measures alone, could not have executed the required investments. China dealt with the challenge by the federal government directing and capitalizing with overall regional coordination for execution. Another lesson learned is choosing necessary technologies to meet demand and local conditions. Electrification has to be included as part of general socio-economic development by embedding it in poverty abolishing strategies of a nation. It facilitates the growth of rural areas and results in income increases.
China is different from other countries in that its authorities mobilize huge capitals in unique ways. Some instances arise when the central and regional governments have different interests that pose a problem in achieving china’s goal that requires electricity for all. Even though it is vital to watch the differences and probable risks, china’s attainment offers crucial lessons to other nations’ objectives on electrifying. China displays the role funding plays and stresses its necessity; extension of the grid provides support for electricity access. Recent technologies with off-grid systems are proven to more practical, and such continued improvement in technologies changes the stability of economic advantage from grid solutions.
Solar energy is a vast energy source that can be directly utilized to generate other energy resources like hydropower. The majority of the earth’s surface gets adequate solar energy to allow substandard heating of water and houses depending on latitude and season. At low margins, the solar energy absorbed is enough for extensive activities like cooking and running turbines (Ferreira, Kunh & Fagnani, 2018).
Direct application of solar energy is the available source of renewable energy to replace the present global energy providence from fossil fuels eventually. Constant alarms about climate change have caused renewable energy to be a vital component in energy consumption globally. Renewable energy technologies have the possibility of combating carbon release by serving as a substitute to non-renewable sources in power production and transport.
References
al Irsyad, M. I., Halog, A., & Nepal, R. (2019). Renewable energy projections for climate change mitigation: An analysis of uncertainty and errors. Renewable energy, 130, 536-546.
Creutzig, F., Agoston, P., Goldschmidt, J. C., Luderer, G., Nemet, G., & Pietzcker, R. C. (2017). The underestimated potential of solar energy to mitigate climate change. Nature Energy, 2(9), 1-9.
Ferreira, A., Kunh, S. S., Fagnani, K. C., De Souza, T. A., Tonezer, C., Dos Santos, G. R., & Coimbra-Araújo, C. H. (2018). Economic overview of the use and production of photovoltaic solar energy in brazil. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 81, 181-191.
Hernandez, R. R., Armstrong, A., Burney, J., Ryan, G., Moore-O’Leary, K., Diedhiou, I.,… & Kammen, D. M. (2019). Techno–ecological synergies of solar energy for global sustainability. Nature Sustainability, 2(7), 560-568.
Irfan, M., Elavarasan, R. M., Hao, Y., Feng, M., & Sailan, D. (2021). An assessment of consumers’ willingness to utilize solar energy in China: End-users’ perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 292, 126008.
Kabir, E., Kumar, P., Kumar, S., Adelodun, A. A., & Kim, K. H. (2018). Solar energy: Potential and future prospects. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82, 894-900.
Kang, J. N., Wei, Y. M., Liu, L. C., Han, R., Yu, B. Y., & Wang, J. W. (2020). Energy systems for climate change mitigation: A systematic review. Applied Energy, 263, 114602.
Kouhestani, F. M., Byrne, J., Johnson, D., Spencer, L., Hazendonk, P., & Brown, B. (2019). Evaluating solar energy technical and economic potential on rooftops in an urban setting: the city of Lethbridge, Canada. International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering, 10(1), 13-32.
Li, J., & Huang, J. (2020). The expansion of China’s solar energy: Challenges and policy options. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 132, 110002.
Nemet, G. F. (2019). How solar energy became cheap: A model for low-carbon innovation. Routledge.
Noorollahi, Y., Golshanfard, A., Ansaripour, S., Khaledi, A., & Shadi, M. (2021). Solar energy for sustainable heating and cooling energy system planning in arid climates. Energy, 218, 119421.
Oka, K., Mizutani, W., & Ashina, S. (2020). Climate change impacts on potential solar energy production: A study case in Fukushima, Japan. Renewable Energy, 153, 249-260.
Peterson, T. R., & Horton, C. C. (2017). Communicating about Solar Energy and Climate Change. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science.
Sansaniwal, S. K., Sharma, V., & Mathur, J. (2018). Energy and exergy analyses of various typical solar energy applications: A comprehensive review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82, 1576-1601.
Best, R., & Burke, P. J. (2018). Adoption of solar and wind energy: The roles of carbon pricing and aggregate policy support. Energy Policy, 118, 404-417.
Shahsavari, A., & Akbari, M. (2018). Potential of solar energy in developing countries for reducing energy-related emissions. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 90, 275-291.
Solaun, K., & Cerdá, E. (2019). Climate change impacts on renewable energy generation. A review of quantitative projections. Renewable and sustainable energy Reviews, 116, 109415. Web.
Sweerts, B., Pfenninger, S., Yang, S., Folini, D., Van der Zwaan, B., & Wild, M. (2019). Estimation of losses in solar energy production from air pollution in China since 1960 using surface radiation data. Nature Energy, 4(8), 657-663.
Huang, P., Castán Broto, V., & Westman, L. K. (2020). Emerging dynamics of public participation in climate governance: A case study of solar energy application in Shenzhen, China. Environmental Policy and Governance, 30(6), 306-318.
Urban, F. (2018). China’s rise: Challenging the North-South technology transfer paradigm for climate change mitigation and low carbon energy. Energy Policy, 113, 320-330.
Wu, J. S. (2020). Applying Stochastic Frontier Analysis to Measure the Operating Efficiency of Solar Energy Companies in China and Taiwan. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 29(5).