{"id":380511,"date":"2024-07-25T10:12:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T08:12:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/07\/25\/ue-territorio-rinnovabili-eeb-studio\/"},"modified":"2024-08-01T16:30:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T14:30:38","slug":"europe-enough-land-renewables-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/07\/25\/europe-enough-land-renewables-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe has enough land for renewables, agriculture, and nature: study by the European Environmental Bureau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Europe has enough land to expand solar and wind power without compromising food production or nature,<\/strong>\u00a0a study<\/a>\u00a0released by the\u00a0 European Environmental Bureau, the European Network of Environmental NGOs, showed. Only half of the land deemed suitable for renewable energy — excluding natural reserves and high-value agricultural areas — is needed to decarbonize the EU by 2040. The report is based on preliminary spatial analysis by the EU’s Joint Research Center (JRC),\u00a0<\/strong>which identified land suitable for renewable energy projects<\/strong> excluding natural protected areas and high-value agricultural land<\/strong>, focusing instead on built-up areas and degraded land with limited agricultural prospects.<\/p>\n

Specifically: 47.9 percent<\/strong> of the Union’s territory is agricultural land<\/strong>, 18.6 percent<\/strong> is covered by protected areas<\/strong>, 5.2 percent<\/strong> is the share suitable for renewable energy projects<\/strong>, and 2.2 percent is the percentage needed<\/strong> for solar and wind projects to achieve climate neutrality by 2040. “Only 2.2% of the EU\u2019s total land will be required by current and future solar and wind projects to achieve climate neutrality by 2040, phasing out both fossil and nuclear generation in the process,” the report\u00a0states. “According to the JRC, 5.2% of EU land can be considered \u2018suitable\u2019 for solar and wind development, based on strict agricultural, environmental and technical criteria for hosting onshore wind and solar projects,” it points out.<\/p>\n

The EEB\u00a0analysis shows that “the majority of suitable land for sustainable renewable deployment is in rural areas, with 78% for ground-mounted solar PV and 83% for onshore wind.” In this context, however, “rooftops are not enough<\/strong>” – the EEB points out – because “urban and industrial areas alone can\u2019t meet all solar capacity needs. However, there is plenty of degraded agricultural land available to expand solar energy<\/strong> without disrupting rural economies. This can be done in synergy with food production and soil health restoration.” The EEB also said that “Integrating solar power with existing agricultural activities is possible through dual-use standards like agri-PV,” —\u00a0agri-photovoltaics — which aims to produce renewable energy on farmland without taking away productive space for agriculture and livestock. Also,\u00a0“with robust mitigation measures, EU countries can meet both renewable energy and nature restoration goals\u2014requiring 16.7% of land beyond current protected areas\u2014while ensuring synergy between the two.”<\/p>\n

Finally, European solidarity is needed. “Germany and Italy lack enough suitable land for renewables if natural reserves and productive agricultural areas are excluded. In contrast, Spain and Romania have an abundance well above their energy needs. A European \u201cSupergrid\u201d is essential to connect resources<\/strong>, balance energy distribution, and achieve EU-wide decarbonization through cooperation and reduced waste,” according to the analysis.<\/p>\n

As for our country, Italy must allocate 1.7 percent of its total land area by 2030 (and 2.7 percent by 2040) to renewable energy if it wants to achieve a 100 percent renewables-based system dominated by solar photovoltaic (228 GW) and onshore wind (39 GW) generation capacity by 2040. This is all according to the\u00a0Paris Agreement Compatible (PAC)<\/strong> scenario: a Europe-wide energy hypothesis developed by civil society<\/strong> to demonstrate that Europe can achieve climate neutrality by 2040, or\u00a010 years earlier than agreed by EU governments, and which has\u00a0as its main goals a 65 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030; zero emissions by 2040; and 100 percent renewable energy by 2040 in all sectors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The EEB used<\/strong> this scenario\u00a0to compile the report. It shows that by 2040, solar PV and onshore wind will contribute about 68 percent to\u00a0Italy’s electricity production<\/strong> and satisfy about 41 percent of the country’s final energy demand by the same year. “To host those capacities, we estimate that Italy will need around 1.7% of its total land by 2030 and 2.7% by 2040<\/strong>,” the report says.<\/p>\n

Agricultural land in Italy accounts for about 56 percent of the total surface, but\u00a0a significant portion\u00a0(23 percent, or 13 percent of the total land) faces\u00a0high or very high degradation. Nearly 19 percent of Italy’s land is\u00a0in\u00a0Natura 2000 sites, including more than a third of its forests. A further 12 percent of territory\u00a0will be needed to meet the goals of the EU Nature Restoration Act, based on EU projections. The JRC estimated that 0.91% of Italy\u2019s land is suitable for ground-mounted solar PV development, 0.46% for onshore wind, and 0.25% for rooftop solar photovoltaic<\/strong>. For both wind and solar, around 10% of that suitable land is located in cities, 42-46% in towns and suburbs, and 43-48% in rural areas.<\/p>\n

“Based on the PAC scenario capacity results, we estimate that by 2040 Italy will need 0.47% of its territory to host the required ground-mounted solar capacity (78 GW). Based on the JRC\u2019s estimates, this means that there\u2019s almost twice as much land available in Italy than is needed to accommodate ground-mounted PV systems without impacting<\/strong> on nature reserves, other biodiversity-rich sites or valuable farmland. Rooftop PV in Italy will require around 0,25% of the country\u2019s surface by 2040 (for 150 GW capacity), almost exactly corresponding to the JRC\u2019s estimated suitable sites, which are mainly located in cities,” the report says.<\/p>\n

The deployment of the required capacity (39 GW) of onshore wind energy<\/strong> is a different story as it<\/strong>\u00a0could pose some land availability issues if only suitable areas<\/strong>, in line with the JRC’s suitability estimates, are considered. “In fact, Italy would need 1.32% of its land to host the needed onshore wind installations, posing the need to identify additional suitable sites.” Therefore, “onshore wind projects can be ideal candidates for dual-use applications, including potentially on high-value agricultural land, if the right measures are in place and all existing environmental assessments under EU law are implemented.”\u00a0Furthermore, to achieve strategic and effective spatial planning for renewable energy in Italy it is crucial to clearly identify\u00a0Renewable Acceleration Areas (RAA)<\/strong>and ensure that their designation remains effective even if the required\u00a0grid connection works extend beyond these areas; and to minimize bureaucratic and speculative barriers<\/strong> by discouraging speculative land markets, and ensuring that national regulations override conflicting regional and local land use restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the analysis, 5.2 percent of EU land can be considered ‘suitable’ for solar and wind development, based on strict agricultural, environmental, and technical criteria to host onshore wind and solar projects. But the EU needs only 2.2 percent, about half, to phase out fossil fuels and nuclear power, and achieve climate neutrality by 2040<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7874,"featured_media":271473,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25706],"tags":[25746,25855,27790,27796,25786,27598],"class_list":["post-380511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-economy-en","tag-agriculture-en","tag-natura-en","tag-nature","tag-renowable-en","tag-solare-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380511"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380576,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380511\/revisions\/380576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}