IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jcltec/v2y2020i4p27-446d428897.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Untapped Area Potential for Photovoltaic Power in the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Arnulf Jäger-Waldau

    (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), 21027 Ispra, Italy)

Abstract

The political goal of the European Union is to transform into a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate-neutral economy by 2050. To accelerate this transition, the European Commission has presented a European Green Deal in 2019. The aim is to reduce up to 55% the greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The paper looks at the role photovoltaic electricity generation can play to achieve this and whether the required areas for the installation of the photovoltaicaic power needed are available. Following a review of the existing literature, the paper concludes that better use of the technology that has been largely neglected so far coupled with dual-use options would generate much more PV capacity than required to achieve a neutral economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnulf Jäger-Waldau, 2020. "The Untapped Area Potential for Photovoltaic Power in the European Union," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-7, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jcltec:v:2:y:2020:i:4:p:27-446:d:428897
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/2/4/27/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-8797/2/4/27/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fragkos, Panagiotis & Paroussos, Leonidas, 2018. "Employment creation in EU related to renewables expansion," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 935-945.
    2. Zhang, Yuhu & Ren, Jing & Pu, Yanru & Wang, Peng, 2020. "Solar energy potential assessment: A framework to integrate geographic, technological, and economic indices for a potential analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 577-586.
    3. Dinesh, Harshavardhan & Pearce, Joshua M., 2016. "The potential of agrivoltaic systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 299-308.
    4. Gabriele Lobaccaro & Malgorzata Maria Lisowska & Erika Saretta & Pierluigi Bonomo & Francesco Frontini, 2019. "A Methodological Analysis Approach to Assess Solar Energy Potential at the Neighborhood Scale," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-28, September.
    5. Katalin Bódis & Ioannis Kougias & Nigel Taylor & Arnulf Jäger-Waldau, 2019. "Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Generation: A Lifeline for the European Coal Regions in Transition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-14, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Kougias, Ioannis & Taylor, Nigel & Thiel, Christian, 2020. "How photovoltaics can contribute to GHG emission reductions of 55% in the EU by 2030," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Morice R. O. Odhiambo & Adnan Abbas & Xiaochan Wang & Gladys Mutinda, 2020. "Solar Energy Potential in the Yangtze River Delta Region—A GIS-Based Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    3. Kougias, Ioannis & Taylor, Nigel & Kakoulaki, Georgia & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf, 2021. "The role of photovoltaics for the European Green Deal and the recovery plan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    4. Prăvălie, Remus & Sîrodoev, Igor & Ruiz-Arias, José & Dumitraşcu, Monica, 2022. "Using renewable (solar) energy as a sustainable management pathway of lands highly sensitive to degradation in Romania. A countrywide analysis based on exploring the geographical and technical solar p," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 976-990.
    5. Obsa Urgessa Ayana & Jima Degaga, 2022. "Effects of rural electrification on household welfare: a meta-regression analysis," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(2), pages 209-261, June.
    6. Sahoo, Somadutta & Zuidema, Christian & van Stralen, Joost N.P. & Sijm, Jos & Faaij, André, 2022. "Detailed spatial analysis of renewables’ potential and heat: A study of Groningen Province in the northern Netherlands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 318(C).
    7. Schindele, Stephan & Trommsdorff, Maximilian & Schlaak, Albert & Obergfell, Tabea & Bopp, Georg & Reise, Christian & Braun, Christian & Weselek, Axel & Bauerle, Andrea & Högy, Petra & Goetzberger, Ado, 2020. "Implementation of agrophotovoltaics: Techno-economic analysis of the price-performance ratio and its policy implications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Formolli, M. & Kleiven, T. & Lobaccaro, G., 2023. "Assessing solar energy accessibility at high latitudes: A systematic review of urban spatial domains, metrics, and parameters," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    9. Amaducci, Stefano & Yin, Xinyou & Colauzzi, Michele, 2018. "Agrivoltaic systems to optimise land use for electric energy production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 545-561.
    10. Poonia, Surendra & Jat, N.K. & Santra, Priyabrata & Singh, A.K. & Jain, Dilip & Meena, H.M., 2022. "Techno-economic evaluation of different agri-voltaic designs for the hot arid ecosystem India," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 149-163.
    11. Dias, Luís & Gouveia, João Pedro & Lourenço, Paulo & Seixas, Júlia, 2019. "Interplay between the potential of photovoltaic systems and agricultural land use," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 725-735.
    12. Gorjian, Shiva & Bousi, Erion & Özdemir, Özal Emre & Trommsdorff, Max & Kumar, Nallapaneni Manoj & Anand, Abhishek & Kant, Karunesh & Chopra, Shauhrat S., 2022. "Progress and challenges of crop production and electricity generation in agrivoltaic systems using semi-transparent photovoltaic technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    13. Olgun Aydin & Bartłomiej Igliński & Krzysztof Krukowski & Marek Siemiński, 2022. "Analyzing Wind Energy Potential Using Efficient Global Optimization: A Case Study for the City Gdańsk in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, April.
    14. Andreas Andreou & Panagiotis Fragkos & Theofano Fotiou & Faidra Filippidou, 2022. "Assessing Lifestyle Transformations and Their Systemic Effects in Energy-System and Integrated Assessment Models: A Review of Current Methods and Data," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-24, July.
    15. Barkat Rabbi & Zhong-Hua Chen & Subbu Sethuvenkatraman, 2019. "Protected Cropping in Warm Climates: A Review of Humidity Control and Cooling Methods," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-24, July.
    16. Costantini, Michele & Provolo, Giorgio & Bacenetti, Jacopo, 2024. "The effects of incorporating renewable energy into the environmental footprint of beef production," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    17. Tian, Shuai & Yang, Guoqiang & Du, Sihong & Zhuang, Dian & Zhu, Ke & Zhou, Xin & Jin, Xing & Ye, Yu & Li, Peixian & Shi, Xing, 2024. "An innovative method for evaluating the urban roof photovoltaic potential based on open-source satellite images," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).
    18. Prehoda, Emily W. & Pearce, Joshua M., 2017. "Potential lives saved by replacing coal with solar photovoltaic electricity production in the U.S," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 710-715.
    19. Wu, Yubo & Du, Jianqiang & Liu, Guangxin & Ma, Danzhu & Jia, Fengrui & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Wang, Jin, 2022. "A review of self-cleaning technology to reduce dust and ice accumulation in photovoltaic power generation using superhydrophobic coating," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 1034-1061.
    20. Solomon Feleke & Degarege Anteneh & Balamurali Pydi & Raavi Satish & Adel El-Shahat & Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz, 2023. "Feasibility and Potential Assessment of Solar Resources: A Case Study in North Shewa Zone, Amhara, Ethiopia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-15, March.

    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:gam:jcltec:v:2:y:2020:i:4:p:27-446:d:428897. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.