Chen et al. (2026) Simulating the impacts of utility-scale photovoltaic installations with a physically based coupled WRF-PV model

Identification

• Journal: Geoscientific model development
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-14
• Authors: Yiran Chen, Jiming Jin, Yimin Liu, Jannik Heusinger, Jesús Carrera, Zeyu Zhou
• DOI: 10.5194/gmd-19-8515-2026

Research Groups

• State Key Laboratory of Earth System Numerical Modeling and Application, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
• College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
• College of Resources and Environment, Yangtze University, Wuhan 430100, Hubei Province, China
• Institute of Geoecology, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Braunschweig 38106, Germany
• Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), CSIC, Jordi Girona, 18, 08034 Barcelona, Spain

Short Summary

This study presents a physically based and fully coupled PV-ground-atmosphere scheme implemented in the WRF model to simulate the impacts of utility-scale photovoltaic installations on regional climate. The model was applied to northwestern China for the summers of 2018-2024.

Objective

• To develop a physically consistent modeling framework for representing utility-scale PV installations in regional climate models.
• To investigate the effects of utility-scale PV installations on regional climate during summer, when solar radiation is strong and land-atmosphere coupling has been shown to play an important role in East Asian climate.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional scale, covering northwestern China.
• Temporal Scale: Summer season (June-August) for the years 2018-2024.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: WRF model version 4.4.2 with a physically based and fully coupled PV-ground-atmosphere scheme.
• Data sources: ERA5 reanalysis data, CLDAS-V2.0, MOD21A2 and MYD21A2 Collection 6.1 land surface temperature products.

Main Results

• The study found that the WRF-PV model captured observed spatial and diurnal climate features in northwestern China.
• Evaluation against MODIS showed that WRF-PV improved the simulation of skin temperature over PV installations, reducing the RMSE from 3.071°C in WRFCTL to 2.560°C in WRFPV.
• Utility-scale PV installations reduced daytime skin temperature by 1.6°C but warmed near-surface air by 1.2°C in summer.

Contributions

• This study provides a physically consistent modeling framework for representing utility-scale PV installations in regional climate models.
• The results highlight the importance of considering the impacts of utility-scale PV installations on regional climate, particularly during summer when solar radiation is strong and land-atmosphere coupling plays an important role.

Funding

• Not specified.

Citation

@article{Chen2026Simulating,
  author = {Chen, Yiran and Jin, Jiming and Liu, Yimin and Heusinger, Jannik and Carrera, Jesús and Zhou, Zeyu},
  title = {Simulating the impacts of utility-scale photovoltaic installations with a physically based coupled WRF-PV model},
  journal = {Geoscientific model development},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.5194/gmd-19-8515-2026},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-8515-2026}
}