More solar farms or more bioenergy crops? Mapping and assessing potential land-use conflicts among renewable energy technologies in eastern Ontario, Canada

Calvert, Kirby; Mabee, W. E.

doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.11.028

Cited by 128 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Table 4 summarizes the graphically presented findings numerically for the access targets of 150/300 kWh/capita/year for rural and urban settlements respectively. Results regarding the grid expansion and the optimal electrification mix are directly derived from the geospatial analysis 10 .…”

Section: Scenario Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the context of our study there are several recent studies on energy planning and renewable resource assessment, spanning from local (Palaiologou et al, 2011), (Quinonez-Varela et al, 2007), (Gormally et al, 2012), (Miller and Li, 2014), (Calvert and Mabee, 2015) national studies (Siyal et al, 2015), (Sahai, 2013), (Bekele and Tadesse, 2012), (Aydin et al, 2013) to regional studies (Sørensen and Meibom, 1999), (ESMAP, 2015), , (IRENA, 2014), (Archer and Jacobson, 2013) taking the spatial dimension into account. However, these studies do not consider explicitly the spatial effects.…”

Section: Gis For Energy Systems and Energy Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The benefits of geospatial planning in energy access – A case study on Ethiopia

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Access to clean and affordable modern energy is crucial to fostering social and economic development and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Efficient policy frameworks and effective electrification programs are required in order to ensure that people are electrified in a sustainable manner. These programs differ from country to country depending on geographic and socioeconomic conditions. Electrification planning process must consider the geographical characteristics of the resources as well as the spatial dimension of social and economic drivers of energy demand in order to find the most optimal energy access solution. Geographical theory and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in particular can play a significant role in electrification planning, since they are capable of managing the data needed in the decision making process and may integrate and assess all possible options. This paper focuses on considering these characteristics by applying a recently developed GIS based methodology to inform electrification planning and strategies in Ethiopia. The paper illustrates two major aspects of energy planning; 1.) how the optimal electrification mix is influenced by a range of parameters -including population density, existing and planned transmission networks and power plants, economic activities, tariffs for grid-based electricity, technology costs for mini-grid and off-grid systems, and fuel costs for consumers and 2.) how the electrification mix differs from location to location. For a certain level of energy access, ongrid connections would be optimal for the majority of the new connections in Ethiopia; grid extension constitutes the lowest cost option for approximately 93% of the newly electrified population in this modelling effort with 2030 as time horizon. However, there are some remote areas with low population density where a mini-grid (ca. 6%) or a stand-alone solution (ca. 1%) are the most economic options. Depending on local resource availability, these systems deploy varied combinations of solar, wind, hydro and diesel technologies.

show abstract

Section: Scenario Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Gis For Energy Systems and Energy Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

The benefits of geospatial planning in energy access – A case study on Ethiopia

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recently enacted government regulations in Ontario prohibit development of U‐PV systems on “prime” agricultural land, restricting them to “low‐quality” agricultural land. As a recent study observed, however, even when deployed on low‐quality agricultural land, U‐PV systems will continue to displace traditional land‐based economies such as hay production in Ontario (Calvert and Mabee ; see also Sacchelli et al ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hernandez, Hoffacker, Murphy-Mariscal, et al (2015) conducted a similar assessment within the southwest US region, and Wu et al (2015) developed a framework with which to consider land-use constraints and environmental impacts in energy planning efforts. Tangential to the work described above is a burgeoning stream of work that combines environmental engineering with geographic information systems (GIS) to refine site-suitability models for U-PV implementation, and to identify the sites at which U-PV systems might be deployed (e.g., Nguyen and Pearce 2010;Charabi and Gastli 2011;Dawson and Schlyter 2012;Calvert and Mabee 2015). While techno-economic criteria are most prevalent in site-suitability models, there is increasing emphasis on identifying sites at which ecological impacts might be minimized-i.e., "risk-aware" siting models which consider environmental criteria (e.g., Stoms et al 2013)-and on identifying sites that might be prioritized due to the potential for greater non-monetary returns on investment (Calvert et al 2013).…”

Section: Aggregate Land Requirements Of U-pv Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring and modelling the land‐use intensity and land requirements of utility‐scale photovoltaic systems in the Canadian province of Ontario

Calvert

2018

Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper summarizes the land‐use impacts and land requirements of utility‐scale photovoltaic (U‐PV) systems in the Canadian province of Ontario. The empirical research is based on an analysis of approximately 95 projects representing over 1000 MW of U‐PV systems province‐wide. Findings from this empirical assessment are combined with information about future technological advances in order to develop a modelling framework that can forecast land requirements of U‐PV systems within evolving market and technology contexts. Specifically, the model is used to estimate the land requirements of U‐PV systems in a hypothetical future in which U‐PV systems supply all mid‐day electricity needs in Ontario, including added demands from a completely electrified light‐duty vehicle fleet. Under this scenario, on an installed capacity basis and assuming that 20% of mid‐day electricity demand is met with rooftop PV, an area equivalent to 0.5% to 8.5% of Ontario's agricultural land would be required, depending on panel efficiencies and system packing factors. These land requirements are manageable, particularly as more land‐efficient technologies are deployed and as regulations are designed to mitigate the land‐use impacts of U‐PV systems.

show abstract

“…However, as the global population increases 1.15% per year [23], attractive land and even waterways will become more valuable, especially in densely populated areas. This has the adverse consequence of creating competition for limited land resources between food and energy demand [24][25][26], which will exacerbate the current problem of 870 million people who are chronically malnourished [27]. This means practically that all available non-food producing surface areas should be used before energy production impacts food production.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

General Design Procedures for Airport-Based Solar Photovoltaic Systems

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A source of large surface areas for solar photovoltaic (PV) farms that has been largely overlooked in the 13,000 United States of America (U.S.) airports. This paper hopes to enable PV deployments in most airports by providing an approach to overcome the three primary challenges identified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): (1) reflectivity and glare; (2) radar interference; and (3) physical penetration of airspace. First, these challenges and precautions that must be adhered to for safe PV projects deployment at airports are reviewed and summarized. Since one of the core concerns for PV and airport symbiosis is solar panel reflectivity, and because this data is largely estimated, a controlled experiment is conducted to determine worst-case values of front panel surface reflectivity and compare them to theoretical calculations. Then a general approach to implement solar PV systems in an airport is outlined and this approach is applied to a case study airport. The available land was found to be over 570 acres, which would generate more than 39,000% of the actual annual power demand of the existing airport. The results are discussed while considering the scaling potential of airport-based PV systems throughout the U.S.

show abstract

More solar farms or more bioenergy crops? Mapping and assessing potential land-use conflicts among renewable energy technologies in eastern Ontario, Canada

Cited by 128 publications

References 55 publications

The benefits of geospatial planning in energy access – A case study on Ethiopia

The benefits of geospatial planning in energy access – A case study on Ethiopia

Measuring and modelling the land‐use intensity and land requirements of utility‐scale photovoltaic systems in the Canadian province of Ontario

General Design Procedures for Airport-Based Solar Photovoltaic Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About