Editing IPCC:AR6/SRCCL/Chapter-3 (section)

==== 3.4.2.6 Impacts on energy infrastructure through dust storms ====

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Desertification leads to conditions that favour the production of dust storms ( ''high confidence'' ) (Section 3.3.1). There is ''robust evidence'' and ''high agreement'' that dust storms negatively affect the operational potential of solar and wind power harvesting equipment through dust deposition, reduced reach of solar radiation and increasing blade-surface roughness, and can also reduce effective electricity distribution in high-voltage transmission lines (Zidane et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r744|744]]</sup> ; Costa et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r745|745]]</sup> ; Lopez-Garcia et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r746|746]]</sup> ; Maliszewski et al. 2012 <sup>[[#fn:r747|747]]</sup> ; Mani and Pillai 2010 <sup>[[#fn:r748|748]]</sup> ; Mejia and Kleissl 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r749|749]]</sup> ; Mejia et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r750|750]]</sup> ; Middleton 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r751|751]]</sup> ; Sarver et al. 2013 <sup>[[#fn:r752|752]]</sup> ; Kaufman et al. 2002 <sup>[[#fn:r753|753]]</sup> ; Kok et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r754|754]]</sup> ). Direct exposure to desert dust storm can reduce energy generation efficiency of solar panels by 70–80% in one hour (Ghazi et al. 2014 <sup>[[#fn:r755|755]]</sup> ). (Saidan et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r756|756]]</sup> ) indicated that in the conditions of Baghdad, Iraq, one month’s exposure to weather reduced the efficiency of solar modules by 18.74% due to dust deposition. In the Atacama desert, Chile, one month’s exposure reduced thin-film solar module performance by 3.7–4.8% (Fuentealba et al. 2015 <sup>[[#fn:r757|757]]</sup> ). This has important implications for climate change mitigation efforts using the expansion of solar and wind energy generation in dryland areas for substituting fossil fuels. Abundant access to solar energy in many dryland areas makes them high-potential locations for the installation of solar energy generating infrastructure. Increasing desertification, resulting in higher frequency and intensity of dust storms imposes additional costs for climate change mitigation through deployment of solar and wind energy harvesting facilities in dryland areas. Most frequently used solutions to this problem involve physically wiping or washing the surface of solar devices with water. These result in additional costs and excessive use of already scarce water resources and labour (Middleton 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r758|758]]</sup> ). The use of special coatings on the surface of solar panels can help prevent the deposition of dusts (Costa et al. 2016 <sup>[[#fn:r759|759]]</sup> ; Costa et al. 2018 <sup>[[#fn:r760|760]]</sup> ; Gholami et al. 2017 <sup>[[#fn:r761|761]]</sup> ).

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