Golf is a sport played by a small number of people, mostly the wealthy. In the 10 countries with the most golf courses in the world, if the area of these courses were used for solar power plants, it could generate 842GW of electricity or 659GW of wind power.
Recently, the Environmental Research Communications journal published a study titled “Countries around the world use more land for golf courses than for wind or solar energy.”
The team used the OpenStreetMap database to identify the locations of 38,400 golf courses globally, of which 80% are located in the 10 countries with the largest number of golf courses.
The United States tops the list with more than 16,000 golf courses, followed by the United Kingdom with around 3,100 and Japan with 2,700. The remaining countries in the top 10 include: Canada, Australia, Germany, South Korea, France, China and Sweden.
Golf is a rich man’s sport, but golf courses around the world take up more land than solar and wind power plants.
Calculations show the renewable energy potential from the land area occupied by golf courses.
Accordingly, the 10 countries with the largest number of golf courses alone could install between 281GW and 842GW of large-scale solar power on 25-75% of their golf course area. If 75% of golf course area were used for solar power, the total installed capacity would exceed 646GW - the current figure for these 10 countries.
Additionally, if golf course land were dedicated to onshore wind power, these countries could install between 174GW and 659GW, depending on the spacing of turbines.
Researchers also pointed out the limitations of golf courses, such as consuming large amounts of water and chemicals to maintain, while renewable energy systems are a more sustainable development solution.
According to calculations, a large-scale solar farm requires about 0.01 square kilometer of land per megawatt of capacity, while a wind farm needs about 0.12 square kilometer per megawatt.
With these results, the researchers highlight the untapped potential in rethinking land-use priorities to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
Jann Weinand, lead author of the study from the Forschungszentrum Jülich Research Institute (Germany), said that the aim of the study was not to call for the direct conversion of golf courses into renewable energy areas, but to highlight the potential for exploiting large-scale but underutilized areas.
“In the context of the debate about land use for renewable energy, it is important that we look at the overall land allocation, especially when a large portion of the land is devoted to activities that only serve a small portion of the population,” said Weinand.
According to PV
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/dieu-bat-ngo-o-cac-san-golf-phuc-vu-gioi-nha-giau-2375370.html
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