A study comparing the effectiveness of photovoltaic farms and afforestation in mitigating climate change shows that photovoltaic farms are better than afforestation, especially in semi-arid areas, where photovoltaic farms start to provide climate change mitigation benefits after about 2.5 years - more than 50 times faster than forests. While acknowledging the multiple benefits of forests, the study highlights the efficiency of photovoltaic energy in reducing dependence on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change.
Photovoltaic farms are more effective than tree planting at slowing down global climate change, a study has found. Forest carbon sequestration can slow climate change, while photovoltaic energy can reduce dependence on fossil fuels. However, both methods increase global heat loads because their surfaces are darker and absorb more heat.
Rafael Stern, Jonathan Muller and colleagues studied which land use method can more quickly offset the increase in heat caused by the darkening of the surface, trees or solar panels. The authors measured surface albedo from a solar farm in the hyperarid region of the Arava Valley in Israel.
Silviculture data were measured at the Atir Forest Research Station on the northern edge of the Negev Desert. The authors used these data to calculate the break-even time required to balance positive radiative forcing due to reduced albedo and negative radiative forcing due to photovoltaic generation suppressing carbon emissions or forest carbon sequestration.
The results show that in semi-arid areas, photovoltaic farms can break even and start to produce climate change mitigation benefits in about 2.5 years, which is more than 50 times faster than afforestation. In humid areas, the gap isn't as big, but solar panels still have an advantage.
The authors note that in addition to mitigating climate change, forests provide many benefits, including ecosystem, climate regulation and social services.