Olga Turkovska , Katharina Gruber, Michael Klingler, Claude Klöckl, Luis Ramirez Camargo, Peter Regner, Sebastian Wehrle, Johannes Schmidt

Rising shares of wind power and solar power in energy systems raises concerns over
their land-use requirements (LURs) and associated impacts. Although abundant
literature is available on LURs of solar and wind power, existing estimates exhibit a
large variance, if not even inconsistency. This systematic review therefore evaluates
published LURs for these technologies in the English scientific literature until early
2023, in total 2,286 estimates. The choice of LUR estimates for renewable energies
causes significant variance in projections of total land required for the energy
transition. In some cases, the associated variance is as large as variations due to
scenario-based projections on the future deployment capacities of these technologies
globally, thus, implying additional uncertainties for decarbonization. We find that
methodological differences can explain the variance partly, but data documentation is
poor. We therefore call for improved standards in reporting LURs and provide
guidelines for developing and applying LURs.