Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Environmental Studies Program
Advisor(s)
Justin Becknell
Abstract
Solar power is an area with increasing development in the State of Maine. Photovoltaic solar, which uses large arrays of panels constructed on facilities of several hectares, is an ideal renewable energy source for Maine, because of its low population density and small proportion of conserved lands. Since most of the state of Maine is forested, the development of photovoltaic solar will require increasing amounts of deforestation. Environmental impacts of this deforestation include loss of carbon sequestration, erosion, damage to habitat, and inhibition of other forest benefits. This study uses Landsat data and remote sensing to analyze a large portion of central and western Maine to detect photovoltaic solar facilities. We found a total of 418 sites that had been deforested for photovoltaic solar and 223 sites with photovoltaics built on farmland or grassland. The carbon emissions avoided by the renewable energy benefits outweigh the carbon sequestration benefits from the area deforested, but the ecosystem services lost as a result of the deforestation remain less clear. This is important because of the large number of incentives and limited regulation around photovoltaic construction. For future studies, we recommend a survey of the entire state, more research into the impacts of deforestation for solar photovoltaic on ecosystem services, and monitoring the changing rates of photovoltaic construction over time.
Keywords
Deforestation, solar power, photovoltaics, Maine, land use change, forest managment
Recommended Citation
Lane, James A., "Felling for Photovoltaics: Remote Sensing for the Detection of Solar Facilities in Maine" (2024). Honors Theses. Paper 1468.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1468