Suitable and optimal locations for implementing photovoltaic water pumping systems for grassland irrigation in China

The results indicate that the photovoltaic water pumping systems provide high potential for improving forage productivity, contributing to meet the local demand. The optimal areas are highly sensitive to several environmental and economic parameters such as increased forage potential yield, forage management costs, forage water requirements, ground water depth, forage price and CO2 price. Most of the optimal areas are selected when the market forage price ranges from 300 to 500 $/tonne DM, indicating that the forage produced using PVWP technology for irrigation is already competitive compared to the imported forage.