Planning for Future Solar Farm Development in North Carolina: A Geographic Food Energy-Water Approach.
North Carolina (NC) is a large producer of utility-scale solar power and most of the photovoltaics are located on former agricultural lands (solar farms). In 2017 4% of NC power was generated by solar, but plans are in place for higher percentages, which could have consequences for food production a...
| Published in: | Southeastern Geographer Vol. 60; no. 1; pp. 48 - 65 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
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University of North Carolina Press
Spring2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=142372205&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 142372205 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0038366X Z4J jtl: Southeastern Geographer issn: 0038366X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Spring2020 vid: 60 iid: 1 pid: 2027 pub: University of North Carolina Press artinfo: ui: 142372205 10.1353/sgo.2020.0004 ppf: 48 ppct: 17 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 2MB tig: atl: Planning for Future Solar Farm Development in North Carolina: A Geographic Food Energy-Water Approach. aug: au: Curtis, Scott Etheridge, Randall Malali, Praveen Peralta, Ariane L. Filho, Faete affil: East Carolina University su: North Carolina Farms Solar energy Geospatial data Electric lines Water quality sug: subj: Farms Solar energy North Carolina Power and Communication Line and Related Structures Construction Site Preparation Contractors Solar Electric Power Generation Geospatial data Electric lines Water quality keyword: Agriculture Climate change Photovoltaics Renewable energy Agriculture Climate change Photovoltaics Renewable energy ab: North Carolina (NC) is a large producer of utility-scale solar power and most of the photovoltaics are located on former agricultural lands (solar farms). In 2017 4% of NC power was generated by solar, but plans are in place for higher percentages, which could have consequences for food production and water quality. Geospatial data sets were used to characterize NC watersheds by solar farm development potential. Twenty-seven watersheds were identified as good candidates due to abundance of agricultural lands, presence of high-power transmission lines, and existence of agriculturally impaired waterbodies. These watersheds were somewhat distributed throughout the state, but especially focused in Union County, and 33% contain at least one solar farm. An energy generation model found that for the 27 targeted watersheds, only 2.6% of agricultural land would need to be converted to increase solar's energy portfolio to 5%; and 21.7% would need to be converted to increase it to 12.5%. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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