Solar energy development impacts on land cover change and protected areas

Abstract

Decisions determining the use of land for energy are of exigent concern as land scarcity, the need for ecosystem services, and demands for energy generation have concomitantly increased globally. Utility-scale solar energy (USSE) [i.e., ≥1 megawatt (MW)] development requires large quantities of space and land; however, studies quantifying the effect of USSE on land cover change and protected areas are limited. We assessed siting impacts of >160 USSE installations by technology type [photovoltaic (PV) vs. concentrating solar power (CSP)], area (in square kilometers), and capacity (in MW) within the global solar hot spot of the state of California (United States). Additionally, we used the Carnegie Energy and Environmental Compatibility model, a multiple criteria model, to quantify each installation according to environmental and technical compatibility. Last, we evaluated installations according to their proximity to protected areas, including inventoried roadless areas, endangered and threatened species habitat, and federally protected areas. We found the plurality of USSE (6,995 MW) in California is sited in shrublands and scrublands, comprising 375 km2 of land cover change. Twenty-eight percent of USSE installations are located in croplands and pastures, comprising 155 km2 of change. Less than 15% of USSE installations are sited in “Compatible” areas. The majority of “Incompatible” USSE power plants are sited far from existing transmission infrastructure, and all USSE installations average at most 7 and 5 km from protected areas, for PV and CSP, respectively. Where energy, food, and conservation goals intersect, environmental compatibility can be achieved when resource opportunities, constraints, and trade-offs are integrated into siting decisions.

Mutually-Beneficial Renewable Energy Systems

“…Conversion of degraded lands may include converting cultivated lands to prairies and meadows, or making use of brownfields, abandoned mining lands, salt-contaminated lands, or existing transportation and transmission corridors (BirdLife Europe 2011; Northmore 2014; Hernandez et al 2015;Hoffacker, Allen, and Hernandez 2017;UCS 2017). Integration within built environments can take increasingly diverse forms, from common rooftop solar systems (Moore-O'Leary et al 2017; UCS 2017) to building-integrated PV (Cannavale et al 2017;Moore-O'Leary et al 2017;Jakica 2018), green roofs (Gasparatos et al 2017), clear window modules (Hoffacker, Allen, and Hernandez 2017), various construction components (Uyterlinde et al 2017), noise barriers (Hoffacker, Allen, and Hernandez 2017), solar road panels (Northmore 2014), and solar PV sculptures and solar trees for public art and education (Ferry, Monoian, and Koh 2012;Hyder, Sudhakar, and Mamat 2018).…”

Research and Design of Fixed Photovoltaic Support Structure Based on SAP2000

“…So, it would get the rail and beam contact stress formula (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13) and (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14).…”

“…In recent years, with the popularization and application of solar photovoltaic support system, the design and development of structure of the photovoltaic support system have also become the focus of attention. At present, the photovoltaic support is mostly steel structure in the market, but the aluminum profile has the characteristics of light weight, beautiful appearance, corrosion resistance and other characteristics, which has attracted the attention of the market [1][2][3][4]. Compared with the automatic tracking support, the fixed photovoltaic support has smaller footprint, lower initial investment and less maintenance in the later stage of the support system; In structure, under the same environmental conditions, the stability of the fixed support structure is better than that of the tracking support ；In the power generation capacity, the power generation of the tracking support is better than the fixed support, but it needs a longer investment recovery cycle [5][6][7].…”

Direct environmental impacts of solar power in two arid biomes: An initial investigation

“…Including analysis of such infrastructure spatial data, in combination with real incident data, would give further insight to the expected ecosystemlevel landscape-scale impacts of supporting transport and access infrastructure associated with solar power plants. 47,48 The motivation behind the wind and PV SEA is good in that it aims to identify areas as REDZ where significant adverse environmental impacts are minimised. Given that the SEA is based on national and local biodiversity data sets 33 , maintaining updated data sets is critical to guide proper location of solar power plants.…”