Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: An application to Great Britain

R. McKenna; I. Mulalic; I. Soutar; J.M. Weinand; J. Price; S. Petrović; K. Mainzer

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2022.123754

Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: An application to Great Britain

R. McKenna^* (Corresponding Author), I. Mulalic, I. Soutar, J.M. Weinand, J. Price, S. Petrović, K. Mainzer

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The ambitious Net Zero aspirations of Great Britain (GB) require massive and rapid developments of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technologies. GB possesses substantial resources for these technologies, but questions remain about which VRE should be exploited where. This study develops a transferable methodology to explore the trade-offs between landscape impact, land use competition and resource quality for onshore wind as well as ground- and roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for the first time across GB. These trade-offs constrain the technical and economic potentials for these technologies at the Local Authority level. Our approach combines techno-economic and geospatial analyses with crowd-sourced ‘scenicness’ data to quantify landscape aesthetics. Despite strong correlations between scenicness and planning application outcomes for onshore wind, no such relationship exists for ground-mounted PV. The innovative method for rooftop-PV assessment combines bottom-up analysis of four cities with a top-down approach at the national level. The results show large technical potentials that are strongly constrained by both landscape and land use aspects. This equates to about 1324 TWh of onshore wind, 153 TWh of rooftop PV and 1200–7093 TWh ground-mounted PV, depending on scenario. We conclude with five recommendations that focus around aligning energy and planning policies for VRE technologies across multiple scales and governance arenas.

Original language	English
Article number	123754
Journal	Energy
Volume	250
Early online date	16 Mar 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.123754
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of David Schlund, who carried out some of the wind analysis whilst a Student Assistant at KIT, as well as Camille Moutard, upon whose Master Thesis at DTU this article builds (Assessing the ‘acceptable’ onshore wind potential in the UK, 2019, https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/2451029061). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the anonymous feedback from three anonymous referees on an earlier version of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies.

Credit author statement
Conceptualisation: RM, IM, JMW; Methodology: all; Software: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Data curation: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Writing – Original Draft: All, Writing – Review & Editing: All; Visualisation: IM, JMW, JP, SP; Supervision: RM; Project Administration: RM.

Keywords

Resource assessments
Renewable energies
Scenicness
Onshore wind
Solar PV
Visual impact
GIS
Land use competition

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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McKenna_etal_E_Exploring_Trade-offs_between_VOR
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Cite this

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title = "Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: An application to Great Britain",

abstract = "The ambitious Net Zero aspirations of Great Britain (GB) require massive and rapid developments of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technologies. GB possesses substantial resources for these technologies, but questions remain about which VRE should be exploited where. This study develops a transferable methodology to explore the trade-offs between landscape impact, land use competition and resource quality for onshore wind as well as ground- and roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for the first time across GB. These trade-offs constrain the technical and economic potentials for these technologies at the Local Authority level. Our approach combines techno-economic and geospatial analyses with crowd-sourced {\textquoteleft}scenicness{\textquoteright} data to quantify landscape aesthetics. Despite strong correlations between scenicness and planning application outcomes for onshore wind, no such relationship exists for ground-mounted PV. The innovative method for rooftop-PV assessment combines bottom-up analysis of four cities with a top-down approach at the national level. The results show large technical potentials that are strongly constrained by both landscape and land use aspects. This equates to about 1324 TWh of onshore wind, 153 TWh of rooftop PV and 1200–7093 TWh ground-mounted PV, depending on scenario. We conclude with five recommendations that focus around aligning energy and planning policies for VRE technologies across multiple scales and governance arenas.",

keywords = "Resource assessments, Renewable energies, Scenicness, Onshore wind, Solar PV, Visual impact, GIS, Land use competition",

author = "R. McKenna and I. Mulalic and I. Soutar and J.M. Weinand and J. Price and S. Petrovi{\'c} and K. Mainzer",

note = "The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of David Schlund, who carried out some of the wind analysis whilst a Student Assistant at KIT, as well as Camille Moutard, upon whose Master Thesis at DTU this article builds (Assessing the {\textquoteleft}acceptable{\textquoteright} onshore wind potential in the UK, 2019, https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/2451029061). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the anonymous feedback from three anonymous referees on an earlier version of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies. Credit author statement Conceptualisation: RM, IM, JMW; Methodology: all; Software: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Data curation: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Writing – Original Draft: All, Writing – Review & Editing: All; Visualisation: IM, JMW, JP, SP; Supervision: RM; Project Administration: RM.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.energy.2022.123754",

language = "English",

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T1 - Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy

T2 - An application to Great Britain

AU - McKenna, R.

AU - Mulalic, I.

AU - Soutar, I.

AU - Weinand, J.M.

AU - Price, J.

AU - Petrović, S.

AU - Mainzer, K.

N1 - The authors gratefully acknowledge the contributions of David Schlund, who carried out some of the wind analysis whilst a Student Assistant at KIT, as well as Camille Moutard, upon whose Master Thesis at DTU this article builds (Assessing the ‘acceptable’ onshore wind potential in the UK, 2019, https://findit.dtu.dk/en/catalog/2451029061). The authors also gratefully acknowledge the anonymous feedback from three anonymous referees on an earlier version of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies. Credit author statement Conceptualisation: RM, IM, JMW; Methodology: all; Software: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Data curation: RM, IM, JMW, JP, SP; Writing – Original Draft: All, Writing – Review & Editing: All; Visualisation: IM, JMW, JP, SP; Supervision: RM; Project Administration: RM.

PY - 2022/7/1

Y1 - 2022/7/1

N2 - The ambitious Net Zero aspirations of Great Britain (GB) require massive and rapid developments of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technologies. GB possesses substantial resources for these technologies, but questions remain about which VRE should be exploited where. This study develops a transferable methodology to explore the trade-offs between landscape impact, land use competition and resource quality for onshore wind as well as ground- and roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for the first time across GB. These trade-offs constrain the technical and economic potentials for these technologies at the Local Authority level. Our approach combines techno-economic and geospatial analyses with crowd-sourced ‘scenicness’ data to quantify landscape aesthetics. Despite strong correlations between scenicness and planning application outcomes for onshore wind, no such relationship exists for ground-mounted PV. The innovative method for rooftop-PV assessment combines bottom-up analysis of four cities with a top-down approach at the national level. The results show large technical potentials that are strongly constrained by both landscape and land use aspects. This equates to about 1324 TWh of onshore wind, 153 TWh of rooftop PV and 1200–7093 TWh ground-mounted PV, depending on scenario. We conclude with five recommendations that focus around aligning energy and planning policies for VRE technologies across multiple scales and governance arenas.

AB - The ambitious Net Zero aspirations of Great Britain (GB) require massive and rapid developments of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) technologies. GB possesses substantial resources for these technologies, but questions remain about which VRE should be exploited where. This study develops a transferable methodology to explore the trade-offs between landscape impact, land use competition and resource quality for onshore wind as well as ground- and roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) systems for the first time across GB. These trade-offs constrain the technical and economic potentials for these technologies at the Local Authority level. Our approach combines techno-economic and geospatial analyses with crowd-sourced ‘scenicness’ data to quantify landscape aesthetics. Despite strong correlations between scenicness and planning application outcomes for onshore wind, no such relationship exists for ground-mounted PV. The innovative method for rooftop-PV assessment combines bottom-up analysis of four cities with a top-down approach at the national level. The results show large technical potentials that are strongly constrained by both landscape and land use aspects. This equates to about 1324 TWh of onshore wind, 153 TWh of rooftop PV and 1200–7093 TWh ground-mounted PV, depending on scenario. We conclude with five recommendations that focus around aligning energy and planning policies for VRE technologies across multiple scales and governance arenas.

KW - Resource assessments

KW - Renewable energies

KW - Scenicness

KW - Onshore wind

KW - Solar PV

KW - Visual impact

KW - GIS

KW - Land use competition

U2 - 10.1016/j.energy.2022.123754

DO - 10.1016/j.energy.2022.123754

M3 - Article

SN - 0360-5442

VL - 250

JO - Energy

JF - Energy

M1 - 123754

ER -

Exploring trade-offs between landscape impact, land use and resource quality for onshore variable renewable energy: An application to Great Britain

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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Cite this