Mitigation of land-related impacts of solar deployment in the European Union through land planning policies

Abstract

Solar power is space-intensive and will contribute to intensify land competition, a factor typically not captured by models. This study uses the Integrated Assessment Model WILIAM which explicitly represents the land use changes driven by solar energy expansion through a hard link of its energy and land modules including net energy restrictions. A Green Growth type transition is simulated for the European Union with a high renewable energy share target in electricity mix by 2050, testing different land use planning policies. The results show that a rapid deployment of solar power in land without land policies can intensify land use conflicts and increase associated land use change emissions. Land-use requirements for solar would be 1–1.4 % of total land (corresponding to 55–75 % of urban land), which could be problematic locally. The implementation of land-use protection and land siting policies could reduce 23 % of total land occupied by solar photovoltaics panels (with respect to forest and cropland the area occupied could be reduced up to 88 %), and 23–47 % of the land use change associated emissions with respect to a scenario where not policies are applied. These results show the importance of integrating land use and energy planning policies to alleviate the undesired impacts.