Land concentration and large renewable energy projects

David Cuberes (), Aitor Lacuesta (), Carlos Moreno-Pérez () and Daniel Oto-Peralías ()
Additional contact information
David Cuberes: Maynooth University
Aitor Lacuesta: Bank of Spain
Carlos Moreno-Pérez: Bank of Spain
Daniel Oto-Peralías: Universidad Pablo de Olavide
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Carlos Moreno Pérez

No 25.03, Working Papers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between land ownership concentration and the likelihood of hosting large green energy facilities, specifically mega-photovoltaic (PV) plants, defined as those exceeding 50 hectares. Focusing on Spain, we find that municipalities with a higher proportion of agricultural land concentrated in large farms are significantly more likely to accommodate mega PV plants. This effect remains robust after accounting for key factors influencing PV deployment, including terrain ruggedness, solar potential, and proximity to transmission lines and urban centers. To further neutralize unobserved factors that jointly influence land concentration and PV plant location, we leverage cadastral (parcel) data to conduct an intra-municipal analysis at the 0.5×0.5 km grid-cell level. Our findings reveal that grid cells with larger cadastral parcels have a substantially higher probability of being part of a mega PV facility. A simple theoretical model explains this pattern by highlighting the coordination challenges faced by small landowners. Unlike large ones, fragmented landholders struggle to meet developers’ land requirements, which are necessary to cover fixed project costs. Consistent with this mechanism, we also show that areas with irrigated agriculture are less likely to host mega PV plants and exhibit more unequal distributions of plant locations by land size. Finally, we provide external validity by confirming a similar positive association between mega PV plants and land concentration across U.S. counties. These findings underscore the implications of land inequality for the spatial distribution of renewable energy projects, shedding light on the limited local benefits of such investments and the growing opposition from rural communities.

Keywords: solar plants; photovoltaic plants; land concentration. . (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q15 Q40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-ppm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.upo.es/serv/bib/wps/econ2503.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pab:wpaper:25.03

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics Carretera de Utrera km.1, 41013 Sevilla. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Publicación Digital - UPO ().