Land-Use Efficiency of Big Solar.

As utility-scale solar energy (USSE) systems increase in size and numbers globally, there is a growing interest in understanding environmental interactions between solar energy development and land-use decisions. Maximizing the efficient use of land for USSE is one of the major challenges in realizing the full potential of solar energy; however, the land-use efficiency (LUE; Wm-2) of USSE remains ambiguous. We quantified the capacity-based LUE of 183 USSE installations (>20 MW; planned, under construction, and operating) using California as a case study. In California, USSE installations are concentrated in the Central Valley and interior regions of southern California and have a LUE of 35.0 Wm-2. The installations occupy approximately 86?000 ha and more land is allocated for photovoltaic schemes (72?294 ha) than for concentrating solar power (13?604 ha). Photovoltaic installations are greater in abundance (93%) than concentrating solar power, but technology type and nameplate capacity has no impact on capacity-based LUE. More USSE installations are on private land (80%) and have a significantly greater LUE (35.8 Wm-2) than installations on public land (25.4 Wm-2). Our findings can be used to better understand and improve the LUE of USSE, thereby maximizing economic, energetic, and environmental returns on investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]