Site selection for building solar farms in deserts is crucial and must consider the dune threats associated with sand flux, such as sand burial and dust contamination. Understanding changes in sand flux can optimize the site selection of desert solar farms. Here we use the ERA5-Land hourly wind data with 0.1° × 0.1° resolution to calculate the yearly sand flux from 1950 to 2022. The mean of sand flux is used to score the suitability of global deserts for building solar farms. We find that the majority of global deserts have low flux potential (≤ 40 m³ m^-1 y^-1) and resultant flux potential (≤ 2.0 m³ m^-1 y^-1) for the period 1950–2022. The scoring result demonstrates that global deserts have obvious patchy distribution of site suitability for building solar farms. Our study contributes to optimizing the site selection of desert solar farms, which aligns with the United Nations sustainability development goals for achieving affordable and clean energy target by 2030.

在沙漠中建设太阳能发电场的选址至关重要，必须考虑与沙流相关的沙丘威胁，例如沙埋和灰尘污染。了解沙通量的变化可以优化沙漠太阳能发电场的选址。这里我们使用分辨率为0.1°×0.1°的ERA5-Land逐时风数据计算1950年至2022年的年沙通量。沙通量的平均值用于对全球沙漠建设太阳能发电场的适宜性进行评分。我们发现， 1950年至2022年期间，全球大多数沙漠的通量潜力较低（≤ 40 m ³ m ^-1  y ^-1），合成通量潜力（≤ 2.0 m ³ m ^-1  y ^{-1 ）。}评分结果表明，全球沙漠地区太阳能发电场建设场地适宜性存在明显的斑块分布。我们的研究有助于优化沙漠太阳能发电场的选址，这符合联合国可持续发展目标，即到 2030 年实现负担得起的清洁能源目标。