Talatan Solar Park

The solar park lies in Gonghe County in Qinghai Province, in a high-altitude semi-arid environment characterized by strong solar irradiation, low population density, and extensive areas of desertified land. The region has traditionally been used as sheep grazing lands by Tibetan shepherds.^[1]

The average altitude here is about 3,000 m (9,800 ft) above the mean sea level.

The area forms part of the broader solar development zone in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which also includes projects near the Longyangxia Dam and other sites along the upper Yellow River basin.

A coordinated effort to develop large-scale photovoltaic generation in Talatan began around 2011. One of the principal early developers was Huanghe Hydropower Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the State Power Investment Corporation. The project was framed as both an energy and ecological initiative, aimed at utilizing marginal land while reducing wind erosion and improving ground cover.

Over the following decade, additional state-owned and private enterprises constructed multiple utility-scale PV plants within the designated park. By the early 2020s, Talatan had become a flagship location for China’s high-altitude solar development strategy.

In 2021, a single 2.2 GW photovoltaic plant in Gonghe County developed by Huanghe Hydropower was identified by industry analysts as one of the largest individual PV power stations in the world at the time.

A 2022 report on the Hainan Ecological Photovoltaic Park stated that 46 companies were operating within the Talatan park area and that total installed photovoltaic capacity had reached approximately 16 GW, with average annual generation of around 18,000 GWh.

Project documentation and government reporting emphasize the integration of solar infrastructure with ecological management. One widely publicized practice is the use of controlled grazing beneath PV arrays—often referred to in Chinese media as “photovoltaic sheep”—to manage vegetation, reduce fire risk, and prevent shading of modules while providing additional income streams for local herders. While the panels were originally too low for sheep to graze, that has since been changed and sheep are an intentional part of the project.^[4]

Other measures highlighted in public material include windbreaks, ground-cover planting, and surface stabilization intended to reduce dust accumulation on panels and mitigate wind erosion. These approaches are presented as part of a broader effort to combine renewable energy deployment with land rehabilitation in arid regions.

Unexpected impacts of the solar farm include increased vegetation coverage and soil health. Researchers from the Xi'an University of Technology published findings in Scientific Reports^[5] reporting that the panels cause vitality improvements in the soil directly beneath them.^[6] The provided shade, trapped moisture, and temperature stabilization led the soil to improve from a classification of 'poor' to 'general'.^[5] Another study by researchers at Qinghai University in Frontiers in Environmental Science showed that water content increased 75% under the panels, and the soil could support higher quality vegetation.^[7][8]

• List of photovoltaic power stations
• Solar power in China
• Gonghe County