Minimizing habitat conflicts in meeting net-zero energy targets in the western United States

Using high-resolution energy and land-use modeling, researchers developed spatially explicit scenarios for reaching an economy-wide net-zero greenhouse gas target in the
western United States by 2050. Different levels of land and ocean use protections were applied to determine their effect on siting, environmental and social impacts, and energy costs. Meeting the net-zero target with stronger land and ocean use protections did not significantly alter the share of different energy generation technologies and only increased system costs by 3%, but decreased additional interstate transmission capacity by 20%. Yet, failure to avoid development in areas with high conservation value is likely to result in substantial habitat loss.

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Siting Renewable Energy Facilities Using a Matching Algorithm: A Case Study in Japan

This study explores how a matching model can be utilized for empirically planning renewable energy siting using an illustrative case study in Japan. The matching algorithm enables the matching of sites and renewable energy specifications, reflecting the true preferences of local people regarding facility siting.

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The politics of negative emissions technologies and decarbonization in rural communities

This article examines prospective challenges and opportunities for scaling up negative emissions technologies (NETs) through examining how decarbonization practices are evolving in one particular landscape: the Imperial Valley in southeast California, a desert landscape engineered for industrial agriculture.

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Renewables, Land Use, and Local Opposition in the United States

Wind and solar generation require at least 10 times as much land per unit of power produced than coal- or natural gas-fired power plants, including land disturbed to produce and transport the fossil fuels. Additionally, wind and solar generation are located where the resource availability is best instead of where is most convenient for people and infrastructure, since their “fuel” can’t be transported like fossil fuels.

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