IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v60y2016icp489-497.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing renewable energy potential on United States marginal and contaminated sites

Author

Listed:
  • Niblick, Briana
  • Landis, Amy E.

Abstract

The United States has 121 million ha of marginal land that could be used to produce renewable energy. Approximately 1.73 million ha of this land includes federally funded brownfields, closed landfills, and abandoned mine lands. This study presents a GIS model to evaluate a range of site-specific energy production potentials on brownfields, closed landfills, and abandoned mine lands. Five energy sources are considered: soybeans, sunflowers, and algae for biodiesel, and solar and wind for electricity. Using soybeans, sunflowers, and algae, the United States could produce 39.9×103TJ–59.1×103TJ of renewable fuel per year from biodiesel. Using solar and wind resources, the United States could produce 114–53TWh per year of electricity. The lower end of the range for each resource represents marginal yields as expected under marginal conditions. The upper end of the range represents prime conditions and is used for comparison to other, more productive types of land and U.S. regional climates. While renewable energy sources sited on individual sites may produce marginal amounts of energy, strategic uses of land and combinations of sources can supplement the national energy matrix. The five renewable energy sources examined in this study could meet up to 39% of the total U.S. 2013 energy demand for biofuel and electricity.

Suggested Citation

  • Niblick, Briana & Landis, Amy E., 2016. "Assessing renewable energy potential on United States marginal and contaminated sites," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 489-497.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:489-497
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115014288
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Soratana, Kullapa & Harper Jr., Willie F. & Landis, Amy E., 2012. "Microalgal biodiesel and the Renewable Fuel Standard's greenhouse gas requirement," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 498-510.
    2. G. M. Peterson & J. K. Galbraith, 1932. "The Concept of Marginal Land," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 14(2), pages 295-310.
    3. Fahd, S. & Fiorentino, G. & Mellino, S. & Ulgiati, S., 2012. "Cropping bioenergy and biomaterials in marginal land: The added value of the biorefinery concept," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 79-93.
    4. Mata, Teresa M. & Martins, António A. & Caetano, Nidia. S., 2010. "Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 217-232, January.
    5. Bryngelsson, David K. & Lindgren, Kristian, 2013. "Why large-scale bioenergy production on marginal land is unfeasible: A conceptual partial equilibrium analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 454-466.
    6. Chen, Guanyi & Zhao, Liu & Qi, Yun, 2015. "Enhancing the productivity of microalgae cultivated in wastewater toward biofuel production: A critical review," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 282-291.
    7. Niblick, Briana & Monnell, Jason D. & Zhao, Xi & Landis, Amy E., 2013. "Using geographic information systems to assess potential biofuel crop production on urban marginal lands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 234-242.
    8. Searchinger, Timothy & Heimlich, Ralph & Houghton, R. A. & Dong, Fengxia & Elobeid, Amani & Fabiosa, Jacinto F. & Tokgoz, Simla & Hayes, Dermot J. & Yu, Hun-Hsiang, 2008. "Use of U.S. Croplands for Biofuels Increases Greenhouse Gases Through Emissions from Land-Use Change," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12881, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    9. O'Neill, Daniel W. & Abson, David J., 2009. "To settle or protect? A global analysis of net primary production in parks and urban areas," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 319-327, December.
    10. Milbrandt, Anelia R. & Heimiller, Donna M. & Perry, Andrew D. & Field, Christopher B., 2014. "Renewable energy potential on marginal lands in the United States," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 473-481.
    11. Ioan Voicu & Vicki Been, 2008. "The Effect of Community Gardens on Neighboring Property Values," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 36(2), pages 241-283, June.
    12. Huang, GuanHua & Chen, Feng & Wei, Dong & Zhang, XueWu & Chen, Gu, 2010. "Biodiesel production by microalgal biotechnology," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 38-46, January.
    13. Ilya Gelfand & Ritvik Sahajpal & Xuesong Zhang & R. César Izaurralde & Katherine L. Gross & G. Philip Robertson, 2013. "Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest," Nature, Nature, vol. 493(7433), pages 514-517, January.
    14. Shortall, O.K., 2013. "“Marginal land” for energy crops: Exploring definitions and embedded assumptions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 19-27.
    15. Omitaomu, Olufemi A. & Blevins, Brandon R. & Jochem, Warren C. & Mays, Gary T. & Belles, Randy & Hadley, Stanton W. & Harrison, Thomas J. & Bhaduri, Budhendra L. & Neish, Bradley S. & Rose, Amy N., 2012. "Adapting a GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis approach for evaluating new power generating sites," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 292-301.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hosseini Dehshiri, Seyyed Shahabaddin & Firoozabadi, Bahar, 2023. "A novel four-stage integrated GIS based fuzzy SWARA approach for solar site suitability with hydrogen storage system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PA).
    2. Koutra, Sesil & Bouillard, Philippe & Becue, Vincent & Cenci, Jeremy & Zhang, Jiazhen, 2023. "From ‘brown’ to ‘bright’: Key issues and challenges in former industrialized areas," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Correa, Diego F. & Beyer, Hawthorne L. & Possingham, Hugh P. & Fargione, Joseph E. & Hill, Jason D. & Schenk, Peer M., 2021. "Microalgal biofuel production at national scales: Reducing conflicts with agricultural lands and biodiversity within countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 215(PA).
    4. Josef Navrátil & Stanislav Martinát & Tomáš Krejčí & Petr Klusáček & Richard J. Hewitt, 2021. "Conversion of Post-Socialist Agricultural Premises as a Chance for Renewable Energy Production. Photovoltaics or Biogas Plants?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Ben Zhang & Jie Yang & Yinxia Cao, 2021. "Assessing Potential Bioenergy Production on Urban Marginal Land in 20 Major Cities of China by the Use of Multi-View High-Resolution Remote Sensing Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, June.
    6. LM López-Manrique & EV Macias-Melo & KM Aguilar-Castro & I Hernández-Pérez & HP Díaz-Hernández, 2021. "Review on methodological and normative advances in assessment and estimation of wind energy," Energy & Environment, , vol. 32(1), pages 25-61, February.
    7. Liu, Huicong & Fu, Hailing & Sun, Lining & Lee, Chengkuo & Yeatman, Eric M., 2021. "Hybrid energy harvesting technology: From materials, structural design, system integration to applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    8. Mellor, P. & Lord, R.A. & João, E. & Thomas, R. & Hursthouse, A., 2021. "Identifying non-agricultural marginal lands as a route to sustainable bioenergy provision - A review and holistic definition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mellor, P. & Lord, R.A. & João, E. & Thomas, R. & Hursthouse, A., 2021. "Identifying non-agricultural marginal lands as a route to sustainable bioenergy provision - A review and holistic definition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. Yakubu Abdul-Salam & Melf-Hinrich Ehlers & Jelte Harnmeijer, 2017. "Anaerobic Digestion of Feedstock Grown on Marginal Land: Break-Even Electricity Prices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, September.
    3. Wu, Jy S. & Tseng, Hui-Kuan & Liu, Xiaoshuai, 2022. "Techno-economic assessment of bioenergy potential on marginal croplands in the U.S. southeast," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Saha, Mithun & Eckelman, Matthew J., 2015. "Geospatial assessment of potential bioenergy crop production on urban marginal land," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 540-547.
    5. Gasparatos, Alexandros & Doll, Christopher N.H. & Esteban, Miguel & Ahmed, Abubakari & Olang, Tabitha A., 2017. "Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 161-184.
    6. Edrisi, Sheikh Adil & Abhilash, P.C., 2016. "Exploring marginal and degraded lands for biomass and bioenergy production: An Indian scenario," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1537-1551.
    7. Yan, Dan & Liu, Litao & Li, Jinkai & Wu, Jiaqian & Qin, Wei & Werners, Saskia E., 2021. "Are the planning targets of liquid biofuel development achievable in China under climate change?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    8. Hoekman, S. Kent & Broch, Amber & Liu, Xiaowei (Vivian), 2018. "Environmental implications of higher ethanol production and use in the U.S.: A literature review. Part I – Impacts on water, soil, and air quality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 3140-3158.
    9. Van Meerbeek, Koenraad & Muys, Bart & Hermy, Martin, 2019. "Lignocellulosic biomass for bioenergy beyond intensive cropland and forests," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 139-149.
    10. Trivedi, Jayati & Aila, Mounika & Bangwal, D.P. & Kaul, Savita & Garg, M.O., 2015. "Algae based biorefinery—How to make sense?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 295-307.
    11. Shila, Jacob & Johnson, Mary E., 2021. "Techno-economic analysis of Camelina-derived hydroprocessed renewable jet fuel within the US context," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    12. De Laporte, Aaron V. & Ripplinger, David G., 2019. "The effects of site selection, opportunity costs and transportation costs on bioethanol production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 73-82.
    13. Liu, Tingting & Huffman, Ted & Kulshreshtha, Suren & McConkey, Brian & Du, Yuneng & Green, Melodie & Liu, Jiangui & Shang, Jiali & Geng, Xiaoyuan, 2017. "Bioenergy production on marginal land in Canada: Potential, economic feasibility, and greenhouse gas emissions impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 477-485.
    14. Ben Zhang & Jie Yang & Yinxia Cao, 2021. "Assessing Potential Bioenergy Production on Urban Marginal Land in 20 Major Cities of China by the Use of Multi-View High-Resolution Remote Sensing Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, June.
    15. Soratana, Kullapa & Khanna, Vikas & Landis, Amy E., 2013. "Re-envisioning the renewable fuel standard to minimize unintended consequences: A comparison of microalgal diesel with other biodiesels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 194-204.
    16. Patel, Akash & Gami, Bharat & Patel, Pankaj & Patel, Beena, 2017. "Microalgae: Antiquity to era of integrated technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 535-547.
    17. Nirmala, N. & Dawn, S.S., 2021. "Optimization of Chlorella variabilis. MK039712.1 lipid transesterification using Response Surface Methodology and analytical characterization of biodiesel," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1663-1673.
    18. Maity, Sunil K., 2015. "Opportunities, recent trends and challenges of integrated biorefinery: Part II," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 1446-1466.
    19. Venu, Harish & Raju, V. Dhana & Subramani, Lingesan & Appavu, Prabhu, 2020. "Experimental assessment on the regulated and unregulated emissions of DI diesel engine fuelled with Chlorella emersonii methyl ester (CEME)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 88-102.
    20. Chaudry, Sofia & Bahri, Parisa A. & Moheimani, Navid R., 2015. "Pathways of processing of wet microalgae for liquid fuel production: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1240-1250.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:60:y:2016:i:c:p:489-497. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.