Abstract
Land use is often cited as an important issue for renewable energy technologies. In this paper we examine the relationship between land-use requirements for largescale photovoltaic (PV) deployment in the U.S. and PV-array configuration. We estimate the per capita land requirements for solar PV and find that array configuration is a stronger driver of energy density than regional variations in solar insolation. When deployed horizontally, the PV land area needed to meet 100% of an average U.S. citizen's electricity demand is about 100 m 2. This requirement roughly doubles to about 200 m 2 when using 1-axis tracking arrays. By comparing these total land-use requirements with other current per capita land uses, we find that land-use requirements of solar photovoltaics are modest, especially when considering the availability of zero impact "land" on rooftops. Additional work is need to examine the tradeoffs between array spacing, self-shading losses, and land use, along with possible techniques to mitigate land-use impacts of large-scale PV deployment.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 5570-5573 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| State | Published - 2008 |
| Event | SOLAR 2008: Catch the Clean Energy Wave, Including 37th ASES Annual Conference, 33rd National Passive Solar Conference and 3rd Renewable Energy Policy and Marketing Conference - San Diego, CA, United States Duration: 3 May 2008 → 8 May 2008 |
Conference
| Conference | SOLAR 2008: Catch the Clean Energy Wave, Including 37th ASES Annual Conference, 33rd National Passive Solar Conference and 3rd Renewable Energy Policy and Marketing Conference |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | San Diego, CA |
| Period | 3/05/08 → 8/05/08 |
Bibliographical note
For preprint version see NREL/CP-670-42971NREL Publication Number
- NREL/CP-6A2-46756
Keywords
- electricity demand
- land use
- large-scale PV deployment
- PV
- rooftop solar
- solar arrays
- solar insolation
- solar photovoltaics (PV)
