POWER September 2023 - 8

GLOBAL MONITOR
THE BIG PICTURE: Energy Land Use Intensity
Energy land use is dwarfed by agricultural and urban land use and often forgotten. A July 2022 study published in the
journal PLoS ONE posits current energy systems occupy only about 0.4% of ice-free land worldwide. But that balance is
slated to change, particularly given the projected doubling of global energy consumption by 2050 and widespread
electrification. Several decarbonization scenarios suggest the land directly covered by power generation infrastructure
(footprint) required for electricity generation could soar by 30-80 million hectares and grow to 80-800 million hectares if
the spacing around the installations is included. The study's authors calculated the land-use intensity of energy (LUIE) of
nine electricity sources, basing their data on 1,400 observations worldwide. The study includes the space needed for the
power plants themselves (direct land use) and the space required for upstream production of their fuels (indirect land
use)-but not land needed to mine materials for power plant equipment. This graphic shows the average (mean) LUIE for
each energy source. Note: ha/TWh/y = hectares per terawatt-hour per year. Source: Lovering J, Swain M, Blomqvist L, Hernandez
RR (2022) Land-use intensity of electricity production and tomorrow's energy landscape. PLoS ONE 17(7): e0270155.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270155
-Sonal Patel is a POWER senior associate editor.
Nuclear
15 ha/TWh/y
Natural gas (footprint)
410 ha/TWh/y
Coal
1,100 ha/TWh/y
Geothermal
140 ha/TWh/y
Wind (spacing)
15,000 ha/TWh/y
Ground-mounted
solar PV
2,100 ha/TWh/y
Wind (footprint)
170 ha/TWh/y
Solar CSP
2,000 ha/TWh/y
Land impacts from wind come from the
area covered by wind turbines and access
roads. The footprint area represents only
the area physically covered by the turbine
pad and access roads; the spacing area
includes all spaces between turbines.
Ground-mounted PV data is based on
sites with capacity factors of more than
5%. Rooftop solar, notably, has a LUIE of
zero in the study.
Natural gas (spacing)
1,900 ha/TWh/y
The study suggests indirect land use, specifically from mining, is a dominant
contributor to coal's land-use intensity. LUIE for natural gas plants includes
indirect impacts from natural gas drilling and transportation infrastructure, so
the footprint LUIE represents the area covered by gas well pads, access roads,
and pipelines as well as the power plant, and the spacing LUIE refers to the
entire production field, including all the area in between well pads. Nuclear
LUIE includes the power plant and indirect impacts from the uranium fuel
cycle, including mining, milling, conversion, enrichment, and fabrication.
Residue biomass
150 ha/TWh/y
The study's hydropower
dataset excludes dams
with secondary purposes
for irrigation, flood
control, and drinking
water supply. The direct
area of hydroelectric
dams included in the
LUIE is the area flooded
by the reservoir. The
study also excludes
run-of-the-river
hydroelectric projects.
Dedicated biomass
160,000 ha/TWh/y
Hydroelectric
(single purpose dams)
15,000 ha/TWh/y
Biomass has the largest LUIE given its
massive land impacts, including the direct
area of the power plant and areas needed
for feedstock supply. The study's dedicated
biomass dataset represents woody biomass
production from willow, poplar, and spruce
trees. Comparatively, residue biomass
assumes no land requirements for
feedstock production.
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