Land-use requirements for solar power plants in the united states

How much land do solar power plants use?

For direct land-use requirements, the capacity-weighted average is 7.3 acre/MWac, with 40% of power plants within 6 and 8 acres/MWac. Other published estimates of solar direct land use generally fall within these ranges.

Are solar power plants a land-use problem?

The rapid deployment of large numbers of utility-scale PV plants in the United States, combined with heightened expectations of future deployment, has raised concerns about land requirements and associated land-use impacts.

What are the two types of solar plant land use?

We identify two major “classes” of solar plant land use: (1) direct impact (i.e., disturbed land due to physical infrastructure development), and (2) total area (i.e., land associated with the complete solar plant project).

Is solar energy a significant land use?

One concern regarding large-scale deployment of solar energy is its potentially significant land use. Estimates of land use in the existing literature are often based on simplified assumptions, including power plant configurations that do not reflect actual development practices to date.

How much area do solar power plants need?

Generation-weighted averages for total area requirements range from about 3 acres/GWh/yr for CSP towers and CPV installations to 5.5 acres/GWh/yr for small 2-axis flat panel PV power plants. Across all solar technologies, the total area generation-weighted average is 3.5 acres/GWh/yr with 40% of power plants within 3 and 4 acres/GWh/yr.

What is a utility-scale solar power plant?

We define utility-scale as greater than 1 MWdc for PV plants and greater than 1 MWac for CSP plants. Table ES-1. Summary of Land-Use Requirements for PV and CSP Projects in the United States We found total land-use requirements for solar power plants to have a wide range across technologies.