The land use impact of renewable energy sprawl in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The share of renewable energy is expected to increase in South Africa’s energy mix. Motivated by concerns about renewable energy sprawl, this study quantifies the current and future (2050) land requirements for electricity generation in South Africa and evaluates the likely impact on natural biomes. Currently, around 340 km² has been transformed for electricity generation (mainly coal-powered) and an additional 1 400 km² is used for spacing requirements. Direct land use is expected to increase to 755–1080 km² by 2050, and spacing requirements will increase to 10 700–16 750 km² (0.9–1.4% of South Africa’s land area). South Africa has excellent potential for renewable energy generation, with 36% and 57% of the land area being suitable for solar and wind development, respectively. Assuming that future developments are built on the most suitable land in the Renewable Energy Development Zones, the Nama-Karoo Biome will be most affected. It is concluded that concerns about renewable energy sprawl should not limit South Africa’s renewable energy capacity expansion plans.

KEYWORDS:

• Energy sprawl
• renewable energy
• land-cover change
• habitat loss

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03736245.2022.2129769.

Additional information

Funding

V. T. Gaeatlholwe’s studies were funded by the National Research Foundation, South Africa under scholarship number MND190507434837.