Both technologies, applications of concentrated solar power or solar photovoltaics, are always under continuous development to fulfil our energy needs. Hence, a large installed capacity of solar energy applications worldwide, in the same context, supports the energy sector and meets the employment market to gain sufficient development.
Solar energy investments can meet energy targets and environmental protection by reducing carbon emissions while having no detrimental influence on the country’s development [32, 34]. In countries located in the ‘Sunbelt’, there is huge potential for solar energy, where there is a year-round abundance of solar global horizontal irradiation.
The utilization of renewable energy as a future energy resource is drawing significant attention worldwide. The contribution of solar energy (including concentrating solar power (CSP) and solar photovoltaic (PV) power) to global electricity production, as one form of renewable energy sources, is generally still low, at 3.6%.
Solar PV, one of the fastest-growing forms of renewable energy , has emerged as a pivotal force in reshaping the current global energy landscape and addressing climate change with a decreasing cost [9, 10]. In this context, large-scale PV power plants, in particular, are rapidly expanding.
Communications Earth & Environment 5, Article number: 752 (2024) Cite this article Photovoltaic (PV) installations have rapidly and extensively been deployed worldwide as a promising alternative renewable energy source. However, weather anomalies could expose them to challenges in supply security by causing very low power production.
Although the transition to renewable energies will intensify the global competition for land, the potential impacts driven by solar energy remain unexplored. In this work, the potential solar land requirements and related land use change emissions are computed for the EU, India, Japan and South Korea.