Texas land and open spaces are vanishing quickly. Driven by population and economic growth, demand for rural land is rising, incentivizing its fragmentation and conversion. And the rate of loss is accelerating: between 2017 and 2022, 1.8 million acres of Texas working land was converted to non-agricultural uses.
As Texas faces the disappearance of open spaces, a transition to renewable energy (and its related land-use footprint) comes with legitimate concerns. Utility-scale wind and solar facilities require large tracts of open space. If the state were to reach the 100 gigawatts of new solar capacity projected by Texas A&M over the next decade, the land footprint would be 500,000-700,000 acres. That’s less than 0.5% of Texas land, but it’s still a sizable portion. But how does it compare to other land uses?
Sprawl biggest contributor to loss of open space
According to the American Farmland Trust, farmland has historically been converted primarily for housing developments. The group estimates that over 2 million acres will be converted to housing by 2040 in a business-as-usual growth model.
Oil and gas also requires large areas of Texas land, even without considering their other environmental impacts. As of 2014, when Texas had 665,000 oil and gas wells, UT Austin researchers estimated the oil and gas industry had converted 514,000 acres of Texas land.
As of May 2021, Texas had 1.3 million total oil and gas wells— a 102% increase in just 7 years.
Rock quarries also devour vast tracts of Texas land. In the Texas Hill Country alone, the aggregate industry—mining sand, gravel, and crushed rock—occupies at least 93,000 acres.
Texas needs more renewable energy, not less
Texas is a leader in both wind and solar energy, and we need more of it. Renewables have already avoided the release of 577 million cumulative tons of CO2 in Texas between 2010 and 2022 and saved 252 billion gallons of water from consumption by thermoelectric power plants.
Fossil fuel energy sources continue to release carbon into the atmosphere, worsening climate change which will threaten Texas with altered weather patterns, more severe heat waves, floods, droughts, wildfires, sea level rise, and negative impacts on ecosystems. If we continue on our current climate trajectory, nationally nearly 450,000 acres of farmland will be affected by coastal flooding.
Alarmingly, legislation is moving in the Texas Legislature that would grind renewable energy development in the state to a halt. While SB 819 (Kolkhorst) claims to seek wind and solar energy installations that “peacefully coexist with nature,” legal and economic analysis of the bill finds it is “likely to stifle renewable development at a time when the state cannot keep up with increased energy demands. SB 819 would impose costly regulatory burdens on the renewable energy industry in Texas.”
A smart transition to renewable energy
The land necessary to achieve our decarbonization goals is lower than many imagine, even when compared with a fossil-fuel based energy system. According to a study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the land needed nationally to meet the goal of generating 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2035 for wind, solar, and long-distance transmission lines would be “less than half the area of active oil and gas leases (40,500 sq. mi).” The study finds that to decarbonize the US power sector, it would take less than 1% of the contiguous US, “an area comparable to or even smaller than the fossil fuel industry’s current footprint.”
While a portion of the land converted for renewables could be critical natural areas or prime farmland, there are a number of ways we can make sure renewables have as light a footprint as possible.
Rooftop solar
America has the technical potential to produce 45% of our current electricity demands through rooftop solar. Warehouses alone could produce enough electricity for 19.4 million American homes. Parking lots also have considerable potential. A report from the US Geological Survey estimated that in 2012, parking lots occupied 0.47% of our land area. A conservative estimate calculated the potential for 422 GW of solar on that land. That is 450% more than our total solar capacity in 2022. All this could be achieved without the loss of any additional agricultural or wild land.
Disturbed and contaminated lands
Another important advantage of wind and solar is that they can occupy disturbed or contaminated lands unsuitable for other purposes. Disturbed lands include areas impacted by invasive species, developed areas, and quarries or gravel pits. Contaminated lands range from “Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and Superfund sites” to “landfills, abandoned mine lands, [and] brownfields.”
In the highest land-use scenario calculated by the Department of Energy’s Solar Future Studies, the land required for solar by 2050 would amount to less than 10% of potentially suitable disturbed lands. As of October 2021, there were 459 completed renewable energy projects located on contaminated lands, and more on the way.
One such example, the Sunnyside Solar Farm in Houston, TX, demonstrates how such projects can generate renewable energy while addressing environmental justice concerns. The project is slated to turn a former city dump into a solar facility that provides cheaper electricity for the residents, along with jobs and financial benefits to the community.
Avoiding sensitive lands
When open space is needed for renewables, developers should avoid siting them on our most prime productive lands and pristine habitats. The Nature Conservancy’s Site Renewables Right map identifies “where renewable energy can be developed in the central U.S. while still conserving important wildlife habitats and natural areas at the same time. It’s a win-win.” The American Farmland Trust has also identified prime farmland.
Working with The Nature Conservancy, renewable energy developer Orsted purchased almost 1000 acres of endangered tallgrass prairie and donated it to the conservation group to preserve, to help mitigate the impacts of the Orsted’s Mockingbird Solar project.
The Legislature could increase funding for the Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Program to protect more land like it. They could also consider incentives for renewable energy companies to locate on non-sensitive lands.
Co-location of renewables and agriculture
We can further minimize our impact by employing dual-use approaches: land under wind and solar farms continues to hold productive potential for agriculture and grazing. Texas has already shown how the combination of solar farms and sheep ranching can allow farmers and ranchers to maintain their livelihoods.
The USDA found that only 15% of agricultural land was fully retired from agriculture after solar installation. For wind turbines, “the share that left agriculture was less than 1%.” Meanwhile, oil and gas can hamper agriculture through competition for water (and potential water contamination). Wind and solar facilities, in contrast, do not require water to operate, a major plus in water-scarce Texas.
Studies on the dual use of solar or wind land for agriculture and grazing are encouraging. Wind farms especially allow for extensive open space for alternative uses; only 2% of their total area is occupied by wind infrastructure. The rest is available for farming, grazing, or other uses.
The dual use of land for solar generation and food production is termed “agrivoltaics” and has shown promising results. In fact, the shading provided by panels can reduce water consumption and increase crop yields, especially in dry, hot climates.
Vegetation management
For cases where solar and wind farms are not also dedicated to agriculture and grazing, vegetation management practices have fantastic potential benefits, providing ecosystem services and even improving energy efficiency in the case of solar panels. Services include soil retention, carbon storage, increased pollination services and crop yields, and water retention. These benefits are difficult to quantify into the land footprint of such facilities, but are incredibly important nonetheless.
With thoughtful planning, a clean energy future with a small footprint is possible for Texas
When we look at the science, it’s clear that a renewable energy future is possible without sacrificing vast tracts of productive lands or wilderness areas. The availability of land is not necessarily a limiting factor in the deployment of renewables like wind and solar. The flexibility of wind and solar to be sited on contaminated lands, or host other land uses such as agriculture and grazing, could even reduce future land competition among many important uses. With smart siting and thoughtful planning, renewables can provide a clean energy future while balancing our many other land-use needs.
