The Spatial Planning of Australia’s Energy Landscape: An Assessment of Solar, Wind and Biomass Potential at the National Level

Abstract

Spatially explicit assessment of renewable energy resources is critical for large scale landscape planning and design to maintain energy supply so that economic development and social advancement can be sustained. Renewable energy planning at the national level is pivotal to a nation’s socio-economic sustainability in the context of the oil crisis, anthropogenic climate change and the social and economic impacts of globalisation resulting in the international dispersal of energy supply and ownership. Using a case study from Australia, we investigate the annual spatial heterogeneity of solar energy potential across the country towards identifying the strengths and appropriate uses of spatial ..