The energy transition and climate change require us to focus heavily on renewables, but doing so entails building power plants, and thus taking up land. And so the question is: Do we really need so much space in order to draw all the energy we require from the Sun, the wind and other renewable sources? The answer—fortunately—is no, because relatively little space is needed. Only a small amount of land would be enough to produce all the green energy that we need. Just think that in European countries, on average, about 5% of the land is covered with concrete or asphalt. Now, if we decided to collect energy using photovoltaic panels, 0.8% of the land would be enough, i.e., less than a fifth of what is already covered by roads, town squares, plazas, buildings and so on. What’s more, there are several strategies by which the amount of land needed can be further reduced—and by a lot. Let’s take a look at them. Many ground-saving solutions There are numerous strategies for producing renewable energy while taking up less land. First of all, technological innovations give us more and more energy efficiency, and therefore it is possible to use less land in order to obtain the same results. Even the International Energy Agency says so: efficiency is one of the two fundamental pillars of decarbonization, together with renewables. In 2022, the global economy used energy 2% more efficiently than in 2021, compared with about 0.5% in the previous two years. In other words, in just three years we have seen a fourfold improvement in performance. And at the same time, the duration and energy yield of renewables are also improving: for example, the HJT photovoltaic modules (known as "heterojunction" solar panels by the experts) produced in Italy last up to 30 years and hold the world record for efficiency. They basically transform a quarter (24.6%) of what they receive from the Sun into electricity. Using the roofs of buildings—houses, schools, factories, hospitals, greenhouses, parking lots, etc.—to install solar panels or small wind farms would help take up even less land. The same can be done with floating solar plants, which are positioned in the water basins that feed the hydroelectric plants. These photovoltaic rafts have a further advantage, because they can lower the temperature of the panels, which then last longer, and reduce water evaporation. Solar panels can even improve land productivity by providing shade, or by producing the energy needed for irrigation. This system, known as agrivoltaics, brings together agriculture (either crops or livestock, or both) and photovoltaic panels in the same place. Research conducted in Italy by the industrial association Elettricità Futura shows that, in order to generate the additional 85 GW of renewable energy envisaged by the European RepowerEU plan by 2030, only 0.6% of Italy’s agricultural land will be needed. And, thanks to agrivoltaics, by carefully choosing the plants that grow well under the panels, the impact will be even less. The same also applies to wind power: indeed, in areas where wind turbines are installed, most of the land remains available for livestock and crops. As it turns out, the turbines occupy only 2% of the total area of the wind farm, leaving the other 98% of the land perfectly usable.
