Exhibit 4 Available land for renewables development is limited in several countries. Technically available ¹ land for onshore wind in Germany and solar power in Italy, % Excluded due to technical constraints Excluded due to regulatory constraints Currently available Onshore wind in Germany Solar power in Italy
52
60
39
39
9
1
gigawatts of additional wind power capacity required by 2040 50–80% of available land needed near substations to achieve 2040 additions
gigawatts of additional solar power capacity required by 2040 60–85% of available land needed near substations to achieve 2040 additions
104
63
Note: For separation of land area, the technical constraints and unsuitable land cover are: Existing wind and solar photovoltaic (PV), urban areas, forests, water, airports, low-wind-potential zones (for wind only), slope, and military zones. Regulatory constraints are distance regulations for onshore wind from settlements, protected land, and, in the case of Italy, regulatory constraints to develop utility-scale solar PV on cropland. General assumption for onshore wind is a density of 5–8 MW/km 2 , not considering additional capacity need if repowering is not possible in former areas, radars, military flight zones, and further country-specific detailed regulation. General assumption for solar PV is a density of 43–60 MW/km 2 ; excluding overlapping wind areas and roof-top solar PV (for Germany: 1:1 split between ground-mounted and roof-top solar PV; and for Italy, 3:1). Germany has official RES targets; Italy only has official 2030 RES targets and France only has official 2050 RES targets that were linearly extrapolated to 2040 for this analysis. 1 Sites are restricted to a distance of <5 km to substations.
McKinsey & Company
wind installations and from two to six years for solar (Exhibit 5). 21 As a result, recent tenders across the European Union have been largely undersubscribed. Around 80 GW of capacity— some 30 percent of the additions required to achieve the 2030 EU target for onshore wind—is still going through the permitting process.
To achieve the necessary deployment of renewables, policy makers could consider accelerating permitting procedures—the part of the RES and transmission-line-development process that typically takes the longest amount of time. In major EU countries, permitting times range from three to ten years for onshore
21 “Guidance to Member States on good practices to speed up permit-granting procedures for renewable energy projects and on facilitating Power Purchase Agreements,” European Commission, Commission Staff Working Document, May 5, 2022.
Accelerating the journey to net zero
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