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Calculation of the current land use for renewable energy in Germany
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2014
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BIS-Verlag
Zusammenfassung
The energy revolution in Germany is a nationally and internationally highly acclaimed and debated
topic. The phase-out of nuclear energy by the end of 2022 opens the door to enter the age of
renewable energy. Energy system of the future should be eco-friendly and secure. Currently,
Germany is a pioneer of this global development. The implementation of the energy revolution
implicates increased space requirements for renewable energy. Thus, particular areas for wind
turbine, biogas plants, open space photovoltaic units, hydroelectric power stations and the
technical infrastructure are used. The dynamic expansion of renewable energies in all sectors and
the rapid expansion and modernization of power grids will change the characteristic landscape of
Germany conspicuously. For this reason in this paper the current land use of renewable energy is
analysed. The observation of further development asks for appropriate indications and the
necessary data bases. One more focus of this paper is to examine the effects of land use for
renewable energy to protected resources and landscape features.
As a result the current land use of renewable energy systems is being visualized and analyzed. In
concrete terms, a current land use of 180 km² was observed (up to 2012). Thereof open space
photovoltaic units take up 60.2 % and thus the most of the area. If required cultivable acreage for
renewable resources for biogas plants are included, the current total land requirement is about
28,000 km². This represents about 7.8 % of the area of the Federal Republic of Germany. During
investigation it became clear, that there are still significant gaps in the data. Therefore the results
may underestimate the real situation.