In densely populated countries, land competition is a key challenge in light of a growing population and the land-intensive decarbonization of energy supply. We apply an energy system model using linear optimization to Germany as an example for a densely populated and industrialized nation with a high energy demand to show how land competition affects the economics of land-intensive renewable energies. Bioenergy crops are currently cultivated on 6.5% of Germany’s land area. We find that allocating only 6% of the total land to the future energy system, which is even less than the current allocation to bioenergy crops, allows for a system that is close to the cost-minimum that we calculate when not restricting the land area. This 6% of the land area is divided into 4% for photovoltaics (PV), 2% for onshore wind and 0% for bioenergy crops. This would save 15 billion €/a (15.1%) relative to the system that matches current political targets for utility-scale PV.
Original articel:
M. Schlemminger, C. Lohr, F. Peterssen, D. Bredemeier, R. Niepelt, A. Bensmann, R. Hanke-Rauschenbach, M. H. Breitner, R. Brendel: Land competition and its impact on decarbonized energy systems: A case study for Germany, Energy Strategy Reviews 55 (2024) 101502
DOI: 10.1016/j.esr.2024.101502
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