Pathways to deep decarbonization must consider land-use impacts
Based on Grace C. Wu, Emily Leslie, Oluwafemi Sawyerr, D. Richard Cameron, Erica Brand, Brian Cohen, Douglas Allen, Marcela Ochoa and Arne Olson. 2020. “Lowimpact land use pathways to deep decarbonization of electricity.” Environmental Research Letters.
Ecological impacts from solar and wind are significant, but can be avoided to achieve California’s goal of 100% renewable, zero-carbon electricity by 2050.
The Policy Problem
The costs of renewable energy technology are rapidly declining. At the same time, governments across the globe are mandating significant GHG reductions and setting targets for zero-carbon electricity. These forces are accelerating the clean energy transition. Yet few studies have accounted for the natural and agricultural land impacts of renewable energy development, or how environmental siting constraints affect electricity costs and technology choices. We address these gaps by developing an approach to support policy and regulatory design that achieves multiple objectives— protection of natural and working (agricultural and rangelands) lands and renewable energy development, using the state of California as a case study.
Key Findings and Proposed Solutions
Impacts may be avoided if developers use integrated planning and effective screening tools early in the project development cycle. For California, access to regional renewable resources can achieve lower impacts at lower costs.
Working lands impacts are significant in all scenarios, however, agrivoltaics and wind-friendly farming and ranching have the potential to both reduce conflicts and promote synergistic, higher land-use efficiency landscapes.
Developers can adopt this framework and policymakers can use regulatory mechanisms such as land use policy or zoning changes to prioritize low-impact electricity development.