Addressing the challenge of photovoltaic growth: Integrating multiple objectives towards sustainable green energy development

Virgilio Hermoso, Gerard Bota, Lluis Brotons and Alejandra Morán-Ordóñez

Land Use Policy, 2023, vol. 128, issue C

Abstract: Photovoltaic production is growing globally thanks to climate change mitigation efforts. However, this growth is seldom planned which can lead to conflicts with other land uses, mostly agriculture and biodiversity conservation. There is, therefore, urgent need for adequate planning to minimise potential conflicts. We demonstrate how to identify priority areas for photovoltaic development to meet projected targets for 2050, as well as critical areas for the maintenance of different types of agriculture and biodiversity conservation, using Catalonia (NE Spain) as a case study. We tested three planning scenarios simulating alternative photovoltaic development models: setting targets at the whole regional scale or splitting those targets across counties distributing them equitably by county energy demand or area available for photovoltaic development. Photovoltaic targets could only be achieved when setting targets at the whole of Catalonia scale, although leading to heterogeneous distribution of development efforts and associated impacts on agriculture and biodiversity across counties. Setting targets for each county based on energy demand was far from achieving the regional photovoltaic development target, driven by the limited land available in some highly urbanised counties, where energy demand concentrates. On the other hand, setting targets based on area available within each led to the most equitable distribution of potential impacts of photovoltaic development, while also approaching the regional photovoltaic development target. Adequate planning of photovoltaic development will be key to ensure that photovoltaic development does not flourish at the expenses of other land uses, like maintenance of agricultural production or biodiversity.

Keywords: Photovoltaic; Planning; Landscape; Marxan; Objectives; Trade-offs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837723000583
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:lauspo:v:128:y:2023:i:c:s0264837723000583

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106592

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().