Sustainable energy options and implications for land use (original) (raw)
Related papers
ENERGY AND LAND USE - WORKING PAPER for the GLOBAL LAND OUTLOOK
2017
This working paper for the UNCCD Global Land Outlook discuses linkages between energy and land use. It focuses on renewable energies, but also addresses fossil and nuclear. Quantitative figures of energy "land footprints" are given, as well as qualitative aspects (e.g. biodiversity). The paper also covers system impacts, and governance.
2017
The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) or the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by UNCCD or IRENA in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the authors or contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of UNCCD or IRENA or their members.
Journal of Energy - Energija
In this research, the connection between land use and energy has been discussed from two points of view, i.e., the impacts of energy on land use and the impacts of land use on energy. This research identified several direct and indirect land use changes that occur by clearing vegetation, destroying top soils, and relocating human populations during the different stages of extraction, deposition, and transportation of fossil fuels and uranium ore; and during the establishment of renewable energy sources including wind turbines, hydro-power plants, and associated structures (highways, dams, culverts, tunnels, power station infrastructure, and energy transmission networks). Likewise, feedstock cultivation, processing, and transportation to biomass plants, as well as the production of biodiesel from municipal solid waste, require accessible land resources that further contribute to global land-use change. In the case of the impacts of land use on energy, mixed use development was found ...
An Exploration of the Land–(Renewable) Energy Nexus
Land
The need to understand the connection between land and energy has gained prominence in the calls to opt for renewable energy as part of the climate change mitigation actions. This need derives from the fact that renewable energy resources are site-specific and require rightful access and use of land. The impacts on landscape, land tenure, and land-use patterns of constructing energy facilities are significant, and they may subsequently undermine the authority of local communities. Still, the connection between land and energy is not yet part of integrated development policies and political debates when deciding on renewable energy projects. Therefore, this study critically reviews the land–energy nexus with the aim to understand and explain how the uptake of renewable energy is shaping the land–energy nexus and how renewable energy technologies are evolving and interacting in different regions of the world, particularly in the Global South. Theoretically, the land–energy nexus tends...
The land use–climate change–energy nexus
Landscape Ecology, 2011
Landscape ecology focuses on the spatial patterns and processes of ecological and human interactions. These patterns and processes are being altered by both changing resource-management practices of humans and changing climate conditions associated, in part, with increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. Dominant resource-extraction and land-management activities involve energy, and the use of fossil energy is one of the key drivers behind increasing greenhouse gas emissions as well as land-use changes. Alternative energy sources (such as wind, solar, nuclear, and bioenergy) are being explored to reduce greenhouse gas emission rates. Yet, energy production, including alternative-energy options, can have a wide range of effects on land productivity, surface cover, albedo, and other factors that affect carbon, water, and energy fluxes and, in turn, climate. Meanwhile, climate influences the potential output, relative efficiencies, and sustainability of alternative energy sources. Thus, land use, climate change, and energy choices are linked, and any comprehensive analysis in landscape ecology that considers one of these factors should be cognizant of these interactions. This analysis explores the implications of linkages between land use, climate hange, and energy and points out ecological patterns and processes that may be affected by their interactions.
Renewable Energy in the Context of Sustainable Development
Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2009
Historically, economic development has been strongly correlated with increasing energy use and growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Renewable energy (RE) can help decouple that correlation, contributing to sustainable development (SD). In addition, RE offers the opportunity to improve access to modern energy services for the poorest members of society, which is crucial for the achievement of any single of the eight Millennium Development Goals. Theoretical concepts of SD can provide useful frameworks to assess the interactions between SD and RE. SD addresses concerns about relationships between human society and nature. Traditionally, SD has been framed in the three-pillar model-Economy, Ecology, and Societyallowing a schematic categorization of development goals, with the three pillars being interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Within another conceptual framework, SD can be oriented along a continuum between the two paradigms of weak sustainability and strong sustainability. The two paradigms differ in assumptions about the substitutability of natural and human-made capital. RE can contribute to the development goals of the three-pillar model and can be assessed in terms of both weak and strong SD, since RE utilization is defined as sustaining natural capital as long as its resource use does not reduce the potential for future harvest. The relationship between RE and SD can be viewed as a hierarchy of goals and constraints that involve both global and regional or local considerations. Though the exact contribution of RE to SD has to be evaluated in a country specific context, RE offers the opportunity to contribute to a number of important SD goals: (1) social and economic development; (2) energy access; (3) energy security; (4) climate change mitigation and the reduction of environmental and health impacts. The mitigation of dangerous anthropogenic climate change is seen as one strong driving force behind the increased use of RE worldwide. The chapter provides an overview of the scientific literature on the relationship between these four SD goals and RE and, at times, fossil and nuclear energy technologies. The assessments are based on different methodological tools, including bottom-up indicators derived from attributional lifecycle assessments (LCA) or energy statistics, dynamic integrated modelling approaches, and qualitative analyses. Countries at different levels of development have different incentives and socioeconomic SD goals to advance RE. The creation of employment opportunities and actively promoting structural change in the economy are seen, especially in industrialized countries, as goals that support the promotion of RE. However, the associated costs are a major factor determining the desirability of RE to meet increasing energy demand and concerns have been voiced that increased energy prices might endanger industrializing countries' development prospects; this underlines the need for a concomitant discussion about the details of an international burden-sharing regime. Still, decentralized grids based on RE have expanded and already improved energy access in developing countries. Under favorable conditions, cost savings in comparison to non-RE use exist, in particular in remote areas and in poor rural areas lacking centralized energy access. In addition, non-electrical RE technologies offer opportunities for modernization of energy services, for example, using solar energy for water heating and crop drying, biofuels for transportation, biogas and modern biomass for heating, cooling, cooking and lighting, and wind for water pumping. RE deployment can contribute to energy security by diversifying energy sources and diminishing dependence on a limited number of suppliers, therefore reducing the economy's vulnerability to price volatility. Many developing countries specifically link energy access and security issues to include stability and reliability of local supply in their definition of energy security. Final Text Contribution to Special Report Renewable Energy Sources (SRREN) SRREN 5 of 135 Chapter 9 Supporting the SD goal to mitigate environmental impacts from energy systems, RE technologies can provide important benefits compared to fossil fuels, in particular regarding GHG emissions. Maximizing these benefits often depends on the specific technology, management, and site characteristics associated with each RE project, especially with respect to land use change (LUC) impacts. Lifecycle assessments for electricity generation indicate that GHG emissions from RE technologies are, in general, considerably lower than those associated with fossil fuel options, and in a range of conditions, less than fossil fuels employing carbon capture and storage (CCS). The maximum estimate for concentrating solar power (CSP), geothermal, hydropower, ocean and wind energy is less than or equal to 100 g CO 2 eq/kWh, and median values for all RE range from 4 to 46 g CO 2 eq/kWh. The GHG balances of bioenergy production, however, have considerable uncertainties, mostly related to land management and LUC. Excluding LUC, most bioenergy systems reduce GHG emissions compared to fossil-fuelled systems and can lead to avoided GHG emissions from residues and wastes in landfill disposals and co-products; the combination of bioenergy with CCS may provide for further reductions. For transport fuels, some first-generation biofuels result in relatively modest GHG mitigation potential, while most nextgeneration biofuels could provide greater climate benefits. To optimize benefits from bioenergy production, it is critical to reduce uncertainties and to consider ways to mitigate the risk of bioenergy-induced LUC. RE technologies can also offer benefits with respect to air pollution and health. Non-combustionbased RE power generation technologies have the potential to significantly reduce local and regional air pollution and lower associated health impacts compared to fossil-based power generation. Impacts on water and biodiversity, however, depend on local conditions. In areas where water scarcity is already a concern, non-thermal RE technologies or thermal RE technologies using dry cooling can provide energy services without additional stress on water resources. Conventional water-cooled thermal power plants may be especially vulnerable to conditions of water scarcity and climate change. Hydropower and some bioenergy systems are dependent on water availability, and can either increase competition or mitigate water scarcity. RE specific impacts on biodiversity may be positive or negative; the degree of these impacts will be determined by site-specific conditions. Accident risks of RE technologies are not negligible, but the technologies' often decentralized structure strongly limits the potential for disastrous consequences in terms of fatalities. However, dams associated with some hydropower projects may create a specific risk depending on sitespecific factors. The scenario literature that describes global mitigation pathways for RE deployment can provide some insights into associated SD implications. Putting an upper limit on future GHG emissions results in welfare losses (usually measured as gross domestic product or consumption foregone), disregarding the costs of climate change impacts. These welfare losses are based on assumptions about the availability and costs of mitigation technologies and increase when the availability of technological alternatives for constraining GHGs, for example, RE technologies, is limited. Scenario analyses show that developing countries are likely to see most of the expansion of RE production. Increasing energy access is not necessarily beneficial for all aspects of SD, as a shift to modern energy away from, for example, traditional biomass could simply be a shift to fossil fuels. In general, available scenario analyses highlight the role of policies and finance for increased energy access, even though forced shifts to RE that would provide access to modern energy services could negatively affect household budgets. To the extent that RE deployment in mitigation scenarios contributes to diversifying the energy portfolio, it has the potential to enhance energy security by making the energy system less susceptible to (sudden) energy supply disruption. In scenarios, this role of RE will vary with the energy form. With appropriate carbon mitigation policies in place, electricity generation can be relatively easily decarbonized through RE sources Final Text Contribution to Special Report Renewable Energy Sources (SRREN) SRREN 7 of 135 Chapter 9 SRREN 92 of 135 Chapter 9
Alternative Energy Sources and Land Use
T he public imagination has turned to renewable energy as a solution to the interlinked problems of volatile energy prices, insecure fossil fuel supplies, and global climate change. What are the implications for land policy of scaling up renewable energy use? This chapter examines the land intensiveness of energy production, the land requirements for meeting a significant portion of energy demand, and the constraints on land availability for various resource types. Many renewable energy sources will necessarily be located distant from the centers of energy demand, requiring expanded electricity transmission networks. Both recent experience and emerging proposals confirm that these networks need to grow and become more interconnected. Where to locate energy facilities and transmission lines has been a source of controversy over the past 30 years. We examine locational conflicts during this time and the state of siting policy today.
Ecological Economics, 2021
Understanding potential future patterns of human-induced land-use and land-cover change is critical to assessing and proactively managing the tradeoffs between development and the environment. Most global land-use change assessments, however, consider a narrow set of economic sectors, focusing primarily on agricultural and urban sectors. We present a global land-use change model that includes detailed energy and mining sectors (11 in total) in addition to agriculture and urban sectors. We find that energy and extractive sectors had a large expansion footprint (1.26 million km 2) projected to 2050, which was nearly as large as the cropland expansion footprint (1.54 million km 2) and larger than the urban expansion footprint (0.34 million km 2). Moreover, energy and mining expansion account for nearly 80% of all projected expansion into the world's most intact natural lands, suggesting that these sectors play an outsized role in threats to biodiversity and environmental protection. Additionally, we find substantial shifts in the ranking of countries in relation to their vulnerability of land conversion when we accounted for energy and mining footprints alongside agricultural and urban footprints. Our results suggest that meeting resource demands, while maintaining social and environmental benefits provided by natural systems, will require reducing consumption and increasing efficiency in resource use alongside improved development siting and mitigation practices.
Desertification, energy consumption and liquified petroleum gas use, with an emphasis on Africa
Energy for Sustainable Development, 1996
In this paper, we focus on a human activity that may contribute to desertification, namely deforestation resulting from fuelwood and charcoal needs for energy consumption. Our aim is to demonstrate that liquified petroleum gas (LPG) could be a financially attractive energy source which may reduce the pressure to use forests for their energy products. 2. Energy consumption and desertification SSA commercial energy consumption is the lowest in the world: it is even less than half the average of developing countries [Davidson and Karekezi, 1993] [4]. However, the main reason, apart from relatively low national output, for this fact is that biomass fuels dominate the energy sector, accounting for 50 to 90 per cent of total energy supply in SSA countries. Biomass fuels could be an environmentally sound energy source, being renewable, in principle. However, current practices lead to intense deforestation, thus probably contributing to desertification. The rate of deforestation in Africa as a whole between 1980 and 1990 was the highest in the world, averaging 1.7% per year [UNEP, 1991]. Although not the only cause of deforestation, fuelwood consumption indisputably increases fast cutting into the capital stock of trees, and the effects are most clearly in evidence in the vicinity of cities. Energy policy-makers in Africa are faced with a bewildering array of challenges, opportunities and constraints. Social, economic, demographic and environmental factors are all interrelated in various and complex ways, which means that any energy policy should be holistic in nature and multisectoral. For example, non-energy-related policies such as clearing for agriculture and logging decrease the availability of low-cost fuelwood energy supplies. However, Africa is potentially endowed with a rich source of biomass energy, in the form of forests, woodlands, agricultural residues and urban wastes. Moreover, Africa is rich in renewable resources such as hydro, wind, and solar power, and abundant reserves of less polluting fossil fuels, such as natural gas [cf. Karekezi and Mac-Kenzie, 1993] [5]. Yet, these resources are highly unevenly distributed, their potential is not exploited or it is used in an inefficient manner. In this paper, we focus on the household sector, as in SSA this sector is the main consumer of energy: domestic