ABSTRACT

Solar energy rollout has environmental and socio-economic impacts vital for just low-carbon energy transitions. The modular characteristics of solar photovoltaics enable multi-scalar deployment. How do environmental and socio-economic impacts vary across scales? This understudied relationship impacts the socio-spatiality of solar rollout, who benefits, and how this is enabled. Our study in Portugal during 2017–2020 examines how solar energy went from subsidies to record-setting competitiveness. Most new solar capacity was large scale, with barriers for community energy that weakened in 2020. We draw on interviews with 80 experts and a small-scale questionnaire survey with solar energy cooperative members. Findings show large-scale solar rollout primarily yielded environmental benefits, whereas small scale yielded socio-economic benefits. We argue that near-future joined-up solar energy policies can facilitate synergistic interactions across three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by integrating environmental and socio-economic impacts. This main contribution can inform Portuguese and wider energy policies for sectoral development toward sustainability.

摘要

太阳能的推出具有对低碳能源转型至关重要的环境和社会经济影响。太阳能光伏的模块化特性可实现多标量部署。环境和社会经济影响如何因规模而异？这种未被充分研究的关系会影响太阳能推广的社会空间性、受益者以及如何实现这一点。我们在 2017-2020 年间在葡萄牙进行的研究考察了太阳能如何从补贴转变为创纪录的竞争力。大多数新增太阳能容量规模较大，2020 年社区能源壁垒有所减弱。我们通过对 80 位专家的访谈和对太阳能合作社成员的小规模问卷调查进行了调查。研究结果表明，大规模的太阳能推广主要产生了环境效益，而小规模的则产生了社会经济效益。我们认为，近期联合太阳能政策可以通过整合环境和社会经济影响，促进三个联合国可持续发展目标之间的协同互动。这一主要贡献可以为葡萄牙和更广泛的能源政策提供信息，以促进可持续发展的部门发展。