Under the European Union (EU) energy efficiency targets that Romania has assumed, increasing the share of solar energy has been one of the main points to be considered. The most important solar energy resources are found in the lowlands and low hills in southern and south-eastern parts of the country. The current paper is focused on the Romanian Plain, which has the best environmental conditions to support the development of photovoltaic (PV) farms. One hundred and ten PV farms have been identified and mapped which cover a total area of 1393 hectares. Although it provides a clean and sustainable energy source, the related environmental implications of PV farms could be either positive or negative. In this study, some of the main categories of impacts have been selected for identification and analysis of their environmental consequences. Several indicators have been computed: the share of PV farms from the main land use/cover categories and main soil types, and the distance of PV farms to forests, water bodies, or protected areas. The overall results of the study reveal the current and potential impacts of PV farms in order to understand the interactions between the environment and the use of renewable energy sources and further support science-based solutions for sustainable development.

The aboveground forest biomass plays a key role in the global carbon cycle and is considered a large and constant carbon reservoir. Hence, exploring the future potential changes in forest-cover pattern can help to estimate the trend of forest biomass and therefore, carbon stock in a certain area. As a result, the present paper attempts to model the potential changes in aboveground forest carbon stock based on the forest-cover pattern scenario simulated for 2050. Specifically, the resulting aboveground forest biomass, estimated for 2015 using the allometric equation based on diameter at breast height and the estimated forest density, was used as baseline data in the present approach. These spatial data were integrated into the forest-cover pattern scenario, predicted by using a spatially explicit model, i.e., the Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small regional extent (CLUE-S), in order to estimate the potential variation of aboveground forest carbon stock. Our results suggest an overall increase by approximately 4% in the aboveground forest carbon stock until 2050 in Romania. However, important differences in the forest-cover pattern change were predicted on the regional scale, thus highlighting that the rates of carbon accumulation will change significantly in large areas. This study may increase the knowledge of aboveground forest biomass and the future trend of carbon stock in the European countries. Furthermore, due to their predictive character, the results may provide a background for further studies, in order to investigate the potential ecological, socio-economic and forest management responses to the changes in the aboveground forest carbon stock. However, in view of the uncertainties associated with the data accuracy and methodology used, it is presumed that the results include several spatial errors related to the estimation of aboveground forest biomass and simulation of future forest-cover pattern change and therefore, represent an uncertainty for the practical management of applications and decisions.

Increasing the share of renewable energy has become one of the key actions Romania has assumed under the Europe 2020 strategy targets on climate change and energy (a.k.a. European 20-20-20 targets). Romania benefits from a wide variety of renewable energy sources (RES) -wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass. Among the RES types, solar resources have started to significantly contribute to the electricity mix. Thus, under the rapid transformation and growth of the renewable energy sector, understanding the impacts of Photovoltaic (PV) parks is essential to avoid the potential negative consequences. Hence, the current study is seeking to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of PV parks in Centre Development Region (CDR). The region is located in the central part of Romania covering 14.3% of the country's surface and holding nearly 12% of its population. It corresponds to the central and southern part of the Transylvanian Depression and the surrounding frame of the Carpathian Mountains. The evaluation relies on several environmental and socio-economic indicators. E.g. share of PV parks/land use category /main soil type; distance to forests, waters, Natura 2000; no. of jobs created during the construction/operation of the PV parks; the value of PV parks investment; the impact on the local budget. For the current assessment, 44 PV parks were identified and mapped covering a total area of 415 ha.

All forms of energy generation can have intensive or extensive land use requirements, causing habitat and biodiversity loss in sensitive and diverse ecosystems globally. With the rapid transformation and growth of the energy sector in countries worldwide, understanding the impacts of past practices and charting the trajectory of future development projects is imperative for preventing negative environmental consequences. This dissertation contributes modeling strategies for integrating environmental impacts in renewable energy planning processes and spatially-explicit empirical methods for identifying and quantifying land use and land cover impacts related to renewable energy development. To explore land use and energy conflicts in a jurisdiction that is in the midst of a largescale low-carbon energy transition, I ask the following: (1) is it possible to meet California's ambitious renewable energy targets without using high conservation-value land? (2) what are the system costs of low-impact renewable energy development? I find that while trade-offs between conservation value and renewable resource quality exist, restricting development to low-impact land is not only possible, but incurs only negligible economic cost increases. Given this possibility, I use California as a case study to identify decision-making opportunities in energy planning processes for integrating conservation and land use values and avoiding conservation-climate conflicts. Extending the spatial methods developed for California to countries in Africa that are planning renewable energy expansion, I ask, what is the potential for low-environmentalimpact, socially-responsible, and cost-effective development of wind and solar energy in emerging economies in Africa? Using a multi-criteria analysis approach, I find that "noregrets" options-specifically areas that are low-cost, low-environmental impact, and highly accessible-exist such that significant fractions of demand can be quickly served with lowimpact resources without large additional cost. Despite the magnitude and pace of hydropower expansion in highly biodiverse aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the potential indirect land use and land cover change resulting from hydropower development is poorly understood. To fill this gap, I ask, what are the indirect deforestation and land use impacts of utility-scale i To my teachers, advisers, and mentors "What I stand for is what I stand on"-Wendell Berry "Never lose a holy curiosity"-Albert Einstein ii Contents Contents ii List of Figures iv List of Tables vii List of Figures 2.1 Direct and total energy land use requirements for California.. .. .. .. .. .. 2.2 Renewable energy generation potential across environmental constraint scenarios. 2.3 Percentage overlap of multi-criteria, model-selected development areas between electricity generation technologies and environmental constraint scenarios for the High Renewable Energy (RE) and High CCS build-outs.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2.4 Maps of renewable energy...

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