The impact of off-site land use energy intensity on the overall life cycle land use energy intensity for utility-scale solar electricity generation technologies
Abstract
Estimates of the amount of land used for a defined amount of utility-scale electricity generation in the solar power industry, referred to as solar land use energy intensity (LUEI), are important to decision makers for evaluating the environmental impact of energy technology choices. In general, solar energy tends to have a larger on-site LUEI than that of fossil fuels because the energy generated per square meter of power plant area is much lower. Unfortunately, there are few studies that quantify the off-site LUEI for utility-scale solar energy, and of those that do, they share common methodologies and data sets. As such, in this study, we develop a new method for calculating the off-site LUEI for utility-scale solar energy for three different technologies: silicon photovoltaic (Si-PV), cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV, and parabolic trough concentrated solar thermal. Our results indicate that the off-site LUEI is most likely 1% or less of the on-site LUEI for each technology. Although our results have some inherent uncertainties, they fall within an order of magnitude of other estimates in the literature.
- Authors:
-
- Saint Lawrence Univ., Canton, NY (United States)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1391806
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1228154
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 1941-7012
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY; energy intensity; land use; life cycle; off-site; solar energy; utility-scale
Citation Formats
Murphy, David J., Horner, Robert M., and Clark, Corrie E. The impact of off-site land use energy intensity on the overall life cycle land use energy intensity for utility-scale solar electricity generation technologies. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.4921650.
Murphy, David J., Horner, Robert M., & Clark, Corrie E. The impact of off-site land use energy intensity on the overall life cycle land use energy intensity for utility-scale solar electricity generation technologies. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921650
Murphy, David J., Horner, Robert M., and Clark, Corrie E. Thu .
"The impact of off-site land use energy intensity on the overall life cycle land use energy intensity for utility-scale solar electricity generation technologies". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921650. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1391806.
@article{osti_1391806,
title = {The impact of off-site land use energy intensity on the overall life cycle land use energy intensity for utility-scale solar electricity generation technologies},
author = {Murphy, David J. and Horner, Robert M. and Clark, Corrie E.},
abstractNote = {Estimates of the amount of land used for a defined amount of utility-scale electricity generation in the solar power industry, referred to as solar land use energy intensity (LUEI), are important to decision makers for evaluating the environmental impact of energy technology choices. In general, solar energy tends to have a larger on-site LUEI than that of fossil fuels because the energy generated per square meter of power plant area is much lower. Unfortunately, there are few studies that quantify the off-site LUEI for utility-scale solar energy, and of those that do, they share common methodologies and data sets. As such, in this study, we develop a new method for calculating the off-site LUEI for utility-scale solar energy for three different technologies: silicon photovoltaic (Si-PV), cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV, and parabolic trough concentrated solar thermal. Our results indicate that the off-site LUEI is most likely 1% or less of the on-site LUEI for each technology. Although our results have some inherent uncertainties, they fall within an order of magnitude of other estimates in the literature.},
doi = {10.1063/1.4921650},
journal = {Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy},
number = 3,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Thu May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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