Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of Photovoltaic Parks in the Centre Development Region. Romania

Abstract

Increasing the share of renewable energy has become one of the key actions Romania has assumed under the Europe 2020 strategy targets on climate change and energy (a.k.a. European 20-20-20 targets). Romania benefits from a wide variety of renewable energy sources (RES) -wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and biomass. Among the RES types, solar resources have started to significantly contribute to the electricity mix. Thus, under the rapid transformation and growth of the renewable energy sector, understanding the impacts of Photovoltaic (PV) parks is essential to avoid the potential negative consequences. Hence, the current study is seeking to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of PV parks in Centre Development Region (CDR). The region is located in the central part of Romania covering 14.3% of the country's surface and holding nearly 12% of its population. It corresponds to the central and southern part of the Transylvanian Depression and the surrounding frame of the Carpathian Mountains. The evaluation relies on several environmental and socio-economic indicators. E.g. share of PV parks/land use category /main soil type; distance to forests, waters, Natura 2000; no. of jobs created during the construction/operation of the PV parks; the value of PV parks investment; the impact on the local budget. For the current assessment, 44 PV parks were identified and mapped covering a total area of 415 ha.

Indicator-Based Approach to Assessing the Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of Photovoltaic Parks in Romania. North-West Development Region

“…However, our analysis revealed that 80% were installed at least 500 m from the trees to avoid shading and, consequently, decrease the return on the investment. The main socio-economic impacts of the PV parks that could be assessed using the indicator-based analysis are: distance to roads and settlements, hitherto considered as environmental impacts [5,6,7,14], here considered as supporting infrastructure for the economic investment; land/cover changes and the loss of farmland; and solar electric footprint. The network of national and county roads facilitates the access to areas suitable for the construction of photovoltaic parks; most of investments were built so as to benefit from the existing access roads [5,11,6,7].…”

“…The main socio-economic impacts of the PV parks that could be assessed using the indicator-based analysis are: distance to roads and settlements, hitherto considered as environmental impacts [5,6,7,14], here considered as supporting infrastructure for the economic investment; land/cover changes and the loss of farmland; and solar electric footprint. The network of national and county roads facilitates the access to areas suitable for the construction of photovoltaic parks; most of investments were built so as to benefit from the existing access roads [5,11,6,7]. For this reason, over 66% of investments in the NWDR are located less than 1 km from roads, which reduces the costs (fast transportation, easy access of the equipment, less and/or no additional investments related to roads).…”

“…The resulted spatial and functional effects (positive and/or negative) apply to almost all environmental and socio-economic components: e.g. landscape, land use/cover, vegetation, soil, hydrology, investments, jobs [16,5,6,11,12,13,7,1]. For the current study, the authors computed several indicators to assess the PV parks impacts grouped into two main categories: environmental (distribution on main soil types, distance to hydrological network, protected natural areas, forests) and socio-economic (distribution on main land use/cover categories, distance to settlements, roads, and the solar electric footprint).…”

“…However, the legislative measures introduced after the EU accession, but also following the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change [4], were meant to change the hierarchy of the types of energy used, so that the dependence on fossil fuels to acquire a smaller role compared to renewable energies. This is reflected in the targets imposed and assumed by Romania for the 2030 and 2050 horizons [5,6,7]. Although in the recent years the production of renewable energy has increased significantly, the provisions of the European Green Pact, recently adopted by the EU, require a rethinking of policies on clean energy supply in all economic sectors.…”

“…minimizing pollution, increasing economy, energy security, job opportunities etc., without overlooking some of its negatives [11,12,13,1]. Regional-level studies have been developed to quantify the spatial differences of environmental and socio-economic impact of photovoltaic (PV) parks/farms at various spatial levels: Romanian Plain [6], Southern Romania [5], Centre Development Region [7] and West Development Region [14]. The present study aims to complete and expand the series of regional case studies in order to provide a more detailed picture of the PV parks impacts in Romania.…”