Renewable Energy Siting Scenarios for Switzerland

Switzerland's landscape is analyzed through 2216 planning units in a 4x4km grid to optimize renewable energy infrastructure placement. The dataset, provided by ENVIDAT and updated in 2024, incorporates ecological and social cost metrics alongside energy yield from photovoltaic and wind sources.

Use Cases

• Compare ecological costs (ECUess) and social costs (ECUsoc) for each planning unit to identify areas with minimal externalities for energy projects.
• Analyze the 'number of times pu was selected in MARXAN' columns to understand the frequency of selection for different optimization scenarios.
• Evaluate the distribution of 'energy from roof-mounted PV infrastructure', 'wind turbines', and 'ground-mounted PV infrastructure' across the national grid.
• Model trade-offs between scenarios that include or exclude ground-mounted PV (incl.OS vs excl.OS) using the respective total energy (MWh/a) columns.

Strengths

• Contains 2216 spatially explicit planning units covering Switzerland.
• Includes 18 variables quantifying energy yield, selection frequency, and normalized ecological and social costs.
• Provides data for two distinct optimization scenarios (with and without ground-mounted PV).

Limitations

• The dataset is static, representing a specific optimization study without ongoing updates.
• Limited to a single country (Switzerland), reducing applicability for cross-national comparisons.
• The 4x4km grid resolution may be too coarse for local, site-specific planning decisions.

Provenance

Source

ENVIDAT

Collection Method

Generated using MARXAN optimization software on planning units incorporating ecological and social cost data.

Freshness

2024-01-01

Geography

Switzerland