Regional Differences in the Spatial Distribution and Environmental Consequences of Pv Farms in Southern Romania

Abstract

All forms of energy generation can have intensive or extensive land use requirements, causing habitat and biodiversity loss in sensitive and diverse ecosystems globally. With the rapid transformation and growth of the energy sector in countries worldwide, understanding the impacts of past practices and charting the trajectory of future development projects is imperative for preventing negative environmental consequences. This dissertation contributes modeling strategies for integrating environmental impacts in renewable energy planning processes and spatially-explicit empirical methods for identifying and quantifying land use and land cover impacts related to renewable energy development. To explore land use and energy conflicts in a jurisdiction that is in the midst of a largescale low-carbon energy transition, I ask the following: (1) is it possible to meet California's ambitious renewable energy targets without using high conservation-value land? (2) what are the system costs of low-impact renewable energy development? I find that while trade-offs between conservation value and renewable resource quality exist, restricting development to low-impact land is not only possible, but incurs only negligible economic cost increases. Given this possibility, I use California as a case study to identify decision-making opportunities in energy planning processes for integrating conservation and land use values and avoiding conservation-climate conflicts. Extending the spatial methods developed for California to countries in Africa that are planning renewable energy expansion, I ask, what is the potential for low-environmentalimpact, socially-responsible, and cost-effective development of wind and solar energy in emerging economies in Africa? Using a multi-criteria analysis approach, I find that "noregrets" options-specifically areas that are low-cost, low-environmental impact, and highly accessible-exist such that significant fractions of demand can be quickly served with lowimpact resources without large additional cost. Despite the magnitude and pace of hydropower expansion in highly biodiverse aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the potential indirect land use and land cover change resulting from hydropower development is poorly understood. To fill this gap, I ask, what are the indirect deforestation and land use impacts of utility-scale i To my teachers, advisers, and mentors "What I stand for is what I stand on"-Wendell Berry "Never lose a holy curiosity"-Albert Einstein ii Contents Contents ii List of Figures iv List of Tables vii List of Figures 2.1 Direct and total energy land use requirements for California.. .. .. .. .. .. 2.2 Renewable energy generation potential across environmental constraint scenarios. 2.3 Percentage overlap of multi-criteria, model-selected development areas between electricity generation technologies and environmental constraint scenarios for the High Renewable Energy (RE) and High CCS build-outs.. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2.4 Maps of renewable energy...

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.…”