IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v129y2019icp193-205.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of land requirements on electricity system decarbonisation pathways

Author

Listed:
  • Palmer-Wilson, Kevin
  • Donald, James
  • Robertson, Bryson
  • Lyseng, Benjamin
  • Keller, Victor
  • Fowler, McKenzie
  • Wade, Cameron
  • Scholtysik, Sven
  • Wild, Peter
  • Rowe, Andrew

Abstract

Wind and solar power are predicted to dominate CO2 emission reductions in future electricity systems. Unlike spatially compact fossil fuels, harnessing renewable energy flows increases the land area impact of electricity production. This study quantifies the trade-offs between land area impacts, technology alternatives of decarbonisation pathways, and costs associated with reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation by ~ 90%.

Suggested Citation

  • Palmer-Wilson, Kevin & Donald, James & Robertson, Bryson & Lyseng, Benjamin & Keller, Victor & Fowler, McKenzie & Wade, Cameron & Scholtysik, Sven & Wild, Peter & Rowe, Andrew, 2019. "Impact of land requirements on electricity system decarbonisation pathways," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 193-205.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:129:y:2019:i:c:p:193-205
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2019.01.071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421519300576
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2019.01.071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Konadu, D. Dennis & Mourão, Zenaida Sobral & Allwood, Julian M. & Richards, Keith S. & Kopec, Grant & McMahon, Richard & Fenner, Richard, 2015. "Land use implications of future energy system trajectories—The case of the UK 2050 Carbon Plan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 328-337.
    2. Voorspools, Kris R. & D'haeseleer, William D., 2006. "An analytical formula for the capacity credit of wind power," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 45-54.
    3. Unknown, 2016. "Energy for Sustainable Development," Conference Proceedings 253270, Guru Arjan Dev Institute of Development Studies (IDSAsr).
    4. Gagnon, Luc & Belanger, Camille & Uchiyama, Yohji, 2002. "Life-cycle assessment of electricity generation options: The status of research in year 2001," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(14), pages 1267-1278, November.
    5. Howells, Mark & Rogner, Holger & Strachan, Neil & Heaps, Charles & Huntington, Hillard & Kypreos, Socrates & Hughes, Alison & Silveira, Semida & DeCarolis, Joe & Bazillian, Morgan & Roehrl, Alexander, 2011. "OSeMOSYS: The Open Source Energy Modeling System: An introduction to its ethos, structure and development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5850-5870, October.
    6. Jacobson, Mark Z. & Delucchi, Mark A., 2011. "Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1154-1169, March.
    7. Welsch, M. & Hermann, S. & Howells, M. & Rogner, H.H. & Young, C. & Ramma, I. & Bazilian, M. & Fischer, G. & Alfstad, T. & Gielen, D. & Le Blanc, D. & Röhrl, A. & Steduto, P. & Müller, A., 2014. "Adding value with CLEWS – Modelling the energy system and its interdependencies for Mauritius," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1434-1445.
    8. Cohen, Jed J. & Reichl, Johannes & Schmidthaler, Michael, 2014. "Re-focussing research efforts on the public acceptance of energy infrastructure: A critical review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 4-9.
    9. Jaccard, Mark & Melton, Noel & Nyboer, John, 2011. "Institutions and processes for scaling up renewables: Run-of-river hydropower in British Columbia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 4042-4050, July.
    10. Breukers, Sylvia & Wolsink, Maarten, 2007. "Wind power implementation in changing institutional landscapes: An international comparison," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2737-2750, May.
    11. Sarah M. Jordaan & Garvin A. Heath & Jordan Macknick & Brian W. Bush & Ehsan Mohammadi & Dan Ben-Horin & Victoria Urrea & Danielle Marceau, 2017. "Understanding the life cycle surface land requirements of natural gas-fired electricity," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 804-812, October.
    12. Fthenakis, Vasilis & Kim, Hyung Chul, 2009. "Land use and electricity generation: A life-cycle analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(6-7), pages 1465-1474, August.
    13. English, J. & Niet, T. & Lyseng, B. & Palmer-Wilson, K. & Keller, V. & Moazzen, I. & Pitt, L. & Wild, P. & Rowe, A., 2017. "Impact of electrical intertie capacity on carbon policy effectiveness," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 571-581.
    14. Sally Sims & Peter Dent, 2005. "High-voltage Overhead Power Lines and Property Values: A Residential Study in the UK," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(4), pages 665-694, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maciej Ciołek & Izabela Emerling & Katarzyna Olejko & Beata Sadowska & Magdalena Wójcik-Jurkiewicz, 2022. "Assumptions of the Energy Policy of the Country versus Investment Outlays Related to the Purchase of Alternative Fuels: Poland as a Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, March.
    2. Wadim Strielkowski & Elena Volkova & Luidmila Pushkareva & Dalia Streimikiene, 2019. "Innovative Policies for Energy Efficiency and the Use of Renewables in Households," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, April.
    3. Guillot, Victor & Siggini, Gildas & Assoumou, Edi, 2023. "Interactions between land and grid development in the transition to a decarbonized European power system," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    4. Arjmand, Reza & Monroe, Jacob & McPherson, Madeleine, 2023. "The role of emerging technologies in Canada's electricity system transition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PA).
    5. Arjmand, Reza & McPherson, Madeleine, 2022. "Canada's electricity system transition under alternative policy scenarios," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    6. Besagni, Giorgio & Borgarello, Marco & Premoli Vilà, Lidia & Najafi, Behzad & Rinaldi, Fabio, 2020. "MOIRAE – bottom-up MOdel to compute the energy consumption of the Italian REsidential sector: Model design, validation and evaluation of electrification pathways," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    7. Laha, Priyanka & Chakraborty, Basab, 2021. "Cost optimal combinations of storage technologies for maximizing renewable integration in Indian power system by 2040: Multi-region approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 233-247.
    8. Mai, Trieu & Lopez, Anthony & Mowers, Matthew & Lantz, Eric, 2021. "Interactions of wind energy project siting, wind resource potential, and the evolution of the U.S. power system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    9. Keller, Victor & English, Jeffrey & Fernandez, Julian & Wade, Cameron & Fowler, McKenzie & Scholtysik, Sven & Palmer-Wilson, Kevin & Donald, James & Robertson, Bryson & Wild, Peter & Crawford, Curran , 2019. "Electrification of road transportation with utility controlled charging: A case study for British Columbia with a 93% renewable electricity target," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Lehmann, Paul & Tafarte, Philip, 2024. "Exclusion zones for renewable energy deployment: One man’s blessing, another man’s curse," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    11. Chen, Yi-kuang & Kirkerud, Jon Gustav & Bolkesjø, Torjus Folsland, 2022. "Balancing GHG mitigation and land-use conflicts: Alternative Northern European energy system scenarios," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    12. Wang, Ni & Heijnen, Petra W. & Imhof, Pieter J., 2020. "A multi-actor perspective on multi-objective regional energy system planning," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    13. Heinrichs, H.U. & Mourao, Z. & Venghaus, S. & Konadu, D. & Gillessen, B. & Vögele, S. & Linssen, J. & Allwood, J. & Kuckshinrichs, W. & Robinius, M. & Stolten, D., 2021. "Analysing the water and land system impacts of Germany's future energy system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    14. Lehmann, Paul & Tafarte, Philip, 2023. "The opportunity costs of environmental exclusion zones for renewable energy deployment," UFZ Discussion Papers 2/2023, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    15. Uzair Jamil & Joshua M. Pearce, 2022. "Energy Policy for Agrivoltaics in Alberta Canada," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-31, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ioannidis, Romanos & Koutsoyiannis, Demetris, 2020. "A review of land use, visibility and public perception of renewable energy in the context of landscape impact," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    2. Keller, Victor & English, Jeffrey & Fernandez, Julian & Wade, Cameron & Fowler, McKenzie & Scholtysik, Sven & Palmer-Wilson, Kevin & Donald, James & Robertson, Bryson & Wild, Peter & Crawford, Curran , 2019. "Electrification of road transportation with utility controlled charging: A case study for British Columbia with a 93% renewable electricity target," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    3. Aman, M.M. & Solangi, K.H. & Hossain, M.S. & Badarudin, A. & Jasmon, G.B. & Mokhlis, H. & Bakar, A.H.A. & Kazi, S.N, 2015. "A review of Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) issues of solar energy system," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1190-1204.
    4. Amponsah, Nana Yaw & Troldborg, Mads & Kington, Bethany & Aalders, Inge & Hough, Rupert Lloyd, 2014. "Greenhouse gas emissions from renewable energy sources: A review of lifecycle considerations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 461-475.
    5. Dai, Jiangyu & Wu, Shiqiang & Han, Guoyi & Weinberg, Josh & Xie, Xinghua & Wu, Xiufeng & Song, Xingqiang & Jia, Benyou & Xue, Wanyun & Yang, Qianqian, 2018. "Water-energy nexus: A review of methods and tools for macro-assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 393-408.
    6. Ciliberti, Carlo & Jordaan, Sarah M. & Smith, Stephen V. & Spatari, Sabrina, 2016. "A life cycle perspective on land use and project economics of electricity from wind and anaerobic digestion," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 52-63.
    7. Ha-Duong, Minh & Nguyen-Trinh, Hoang Anh, 2017. "Two scenarios for carbon capture and storage in Vietnam," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 559-569.
    8. Stoll, Pia & Brandt, Nils & Nordström, Lars, 2014. "Including dynamic CO2 intensity with demand response," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 490-500.
    9. Horner, Robert M. & Clark, Corrie E., 2013. "Characterizing variability and reducing uncertainty in estimates of solar land use energy intensity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 23(C), pages 129-137.
    10. Larry Dale & Nihan Karali & Dev Millstein & Mike Carnall & Sebastian Vicuña & Nicolas Borchers & Eduardo Bustos & Joe O’Hagan & David Purkey & Charles Heaps & Jack Sieber & William Collins & Michael S, 2015. "An integrated assessment of water-energy and climate change in sacramento, california: how strong is the nexus?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 223-235, September.
    11. Wachs, Elizabeth & Engel, Bernard, 2021. "Land use for United States power generation: A critical review of existing metrics with suggestions for going forward," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    12. Scognamiglio, Alessandra, 2016. "‘Photovoltaic landscapes’: Design and assessment. A critical review for a new transdisciplinary design vision," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 629-661.
    13. Ferrari, Simone & Zagarella, Federica & Caputo, Paola & Bonomolo, Marina, 2019. "Assessment of tools for urban energy planning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 544-551.
    14. Price, James & Zeyringer, Marianne & Konadu, Dennis & Sobral Mourão, Zenaida & Moore, Andy & Sharp, Ed, 2018. "Low carbon electricity systems for Great Britain in 2050: An energy-land-water perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 928-941.
    15. Amor, Mourad Ben & Lesage, Pascal & Pineau, Pierre-Olivier & Samson, Réjean, 2010. "Can distributed generation offer substantial benefits in a Northeastern American context? A case study of small-scale renewable technologies using a life cycle methodology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 2885-2895, December.
    16. Capellán-Pérez, Iñigo & de Castro, Carlos & Arto, Iñaki, 2017. "Assessing vulnerabilities and limits in the transition to renewable energies: Land requirements under 100% solar energy scenarios," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 760-782.
    17. Bistline, John E.T. & Merrick, James H., 2020. "Parameterizing open-source energy models: Statistical learning to estimate unknown power plant attributes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    18. Welsch, Manuel & Deane, Paul & Howells, Mark & Ó Gallachóir, Brian & Rogan, Fionn & Bazilian, Morgan & Rogner, Hans-Holger, 2014. "Incorporating flexibility requirements into long-term energy system models – A case study on high levels of renewable electricity penetration in Ireland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 600-615.
    19. van Zalk, John & Behrens, Paul, 2018. "The spatial extent of renewable and non-renewable power generation: A review and meta-analysis of power densities and their application in the U.S," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 83-91.
    20. Martens, Katrin, 2022. "Investigating subnational success conditions to foster renewable energy community co-operatives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:129:y:2019:i:c:p:193-205. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.