“Managing groundwater is important not just because of overuse. Due to climate change, groundwater has become the solid buffer,” said Frank van Steenbergen, water resources specialist with MetaMeta Research. “Water saving is important. This project started with the idea that we would save water, and that is important because we overuse it.”

Valuable pasture lands in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are being degraded through overgrazing, conversion, and reduced levels of precipitation as a result of climate change. Qinghai Province is tackling this problem through the innovative use of solar photovoltaic (PV) power for irrigation; a solution that has enormous capacity for upscaling within PRC and throughout Asia.