KEY PRIORITIES To accelerate cost-effective renewables deployment, developers and policy makers could consider eight actions to increase the high- quality land available for development, more efficiently use existing land, and build community support to mitigate siting challenges. Increase high-quality land available for renewables development 1. Increase transmission access. Many of the highest-quality renewable land areas are far from demand centers. For example, only approximately 25 percent of land with high- capacity factors is in the US coastal states, where approximately 60 percent of Americans live. Expanding transmission to connect high- quality land to population centers could increase the potential land available for cost-effective renewables development. (The challenges of transmission build-out are discussed in “Action area 4: Reforming transmission development to include proactive planning, fast-track permitting, and systematic consideration of transmission alternatives.”) 2. Go offshore for wind power. Offshore wind tends to be located close to population centers and could prove a valuable alternative if onshore transmission struggles to develop. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the United States has the technical potential to produce 4,200 GW of energy from offshore wind. Our modeling of the Achieved Commitments scenario forecasts 30 GW in 2030 and 140 GW in 2050—well below the potential 4,200 GW. However, there are still significant barriers to offshore wind development, particularly in the near term, including the limited availability of ships compliant with the Jones Act, 19 construction obstacles, and permitting constraints.
3. Offer incentives and increase land access. Policy makers could provide incentives for high-quality land for renewables development, including by providing property tax credits for sites, streamlining permitting processes, and leasing public land. Roughly 30 percent of all land is publicly owned and not protected specifically as a national or state park, so leasing public areas could be a significant opportunity to expand land for renewables. The US govern ment has a long history of leasing public lands to further economic objectives. It continues to do so today with land leased for energy production— including oil and gas as well as renewables. Use available land more efficiently 4. Improve sites with technological innovation. Solar and wind generation facilities could be upgraded as renewables technology becomes more efficient. Leveraging existing developed sites to install later-generation—and typically higher-efficiency—solar and wind can increase renewable power output without increasing the amount of developed land. For example, about 33 percent of all wind capacity was built more than ten years ago. 20 Turbine efficiency has improved by 10 percent in that time, which suggests a potential increase of at least 3 percent in total capacity. 21
5. Improve efficiency of solar and wind. Making solar and wind more efficient could reduce
renewables’ overall land needs per unit of output. Over the past ten years, the amount of land per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of solar has been cut in half as solar arrays that track the sun have become the dominant technology. 22 More improvements could dramatically open more land usage.
Build community support to mitigate siting challenges
6. Develop brownfield sites in ways that support the local community. In a study of utility-scale renewable-energy projects, the most often-
19 Among other provisions, the Jones Act requires that ships servicing offshore wind in the United States be built, owned, and operated by US citizens or permanent residents. As a result of the Jones Act, total costs of offshore wind projects can increase by about 40 to 55 percent, and implementation can take up to 50 percent longer. 20 “Most U.S. wind capacity built since 2011 is located in the center of the country,” US Energy Information Administration, June 23, 2021. 21 “Wind turbines: The bigger, the better,” US Department of Energy, August 16, 2022. 22 Cheryl Katz, “More energy on less land: The drive to shrink solar’s footprint,” Yale Environment 360 , July 28, 2022.
Accelerating the journey to net zero
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