Promoting an integrated planning for a sustainable upscale of renewable energy. A regional GIS-based comparison between ecosystem services tradeoff and policy constraints

Abstract

The upscale of renewable energy production on a regional scale implies possible negative impacts on the environment, economies and societies. To ensure the sustainability of renewable energy production on a regional scale, the lens of ecosystem services can support sustainable energy assessments. This paper proposes a GIS-based methodology to spatially analyze the integration of renewable energy with other ecosystem services in order to identify trade-offs. The work focuses on solar farms and agricultural biomass from leftovers and considers five other ecosystem services that are fundamental to agricultural landscapes. The proposed assessment methodology relates land cover types to land suitability for renewable energy production, building on the literature on ecosystem service tradeoffs. The methodology was tested on a case study. The case study is the Veneto Region, whose renewable energy policy constraints are also analyzed. The assessment methodology shows that the land cover of fruit crops has a high level of tradeoff. The results of the case study highlight the discrepancy between the two separate analyses: the policy constraints analysis favours solar agriculture, while the tradeoff analysis favours energy production from agricultural biomass. Finally, the study paves the way for further investigation in the field of ES-RES and provides policy recommendations.