Protecting Prime Farmland - Can We Avoid 80% of Solar Encroachment?
Researchers from Cornell University and several partner institutions have introduced a new mapping approach aimed at helping communities expand renewable energy projects while protecting farmland and sensitive wildlife habitats.
The study focused on how large-scale solar developments can be planned across New York in ways that reduce land-use conflicts and support long-term environmental sustainability.
The research was published April 22 in the journal Geography and Sustainability and involved collaboration among scientists from Cornell, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Central Michigan University.
Using advanced spatial modeling, the team evaluated land throughout New York based on three key factors: the cost of solar development, the preservation of productive agricultural land, and the protection of biodiversity-rich habitats.
The resulting maps identified areas where utility-scale solar projects could likely move forward with fewer conflicts, as well as locations where competing priorities may create challenges.
“There’s land-use conflict associated with solar energy development because there are different people interested in biodiversity, agriculture and energy, but in reality those things are interacting in a nexus,” said Steve Grodsky, the paper’s senior author and assistant professor at Cornell.
“We are addressing those things all at once so we can give people a better idea of the interactions and the potential land-use change. This modeling gives us an opportunity to forecast potential interaction points and potential conflict zones, and allows communities and agencies to make more-informed choices in siting decisions.”
The study found that protecting farmland could prevent nearly 80% of possible solar construction on agricultural land, although it may lead to additional forest clearing in some areas.
Researchers also determined that safeguarding biodiversity-sensitive regions would increase annual costs by only 0.17%.
“Traditionally, solar siting has been evaluated through a least-cost objective where the primary goal is to site the energy quickly, cost effectively and ensure reliability. But there is a lot of community pushback around wanting to protect prime farmland and concern around clear-cutting forests,” said Adam Gallaher of Central Michigan University.
“What we’ve found is that it is possible, and minimally more expensive, to take into account multiple criteria that can inform just and ecologically responsible energy transitions.”
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