Zabuye Salt Lake solar pond in Tibet, China: Construction and operational experience

We describe the construction of the Zabuye Salt Lake solar pond and our experience during its operation. The salinity gradient was experimentally determined in the pond, which has a surface area of about 3588 m 2 , at different operation conditions and modes of operation. The method for establishing a salinity and temperature gradient can save large amounts of fresh water during the establishment of a temperature and salinity gradient in a solar pond. A technology to control solar pond operation was developed on the basis of our experimental results and is now being used to operate the pond.