28 February 2025
In many industrialized countries, golf courses take up more space than wind and solar parks - and Germany is no exception. Scientists at Jülich Systems Analysis have shown that hundreds of gigawatts of renewable energy could be generated on these sites. The study was published last week in the journal Environmental Research Communications.
Wind and solar energy require open spaces and often have to compete with agriculture, nature reserves, or residential areas. While rooftop solar panels and agrivoltaics offer partial solutions, land allocation remains a highly contentious issue.
Scrutinizing land use
Golf courses also require large areas of land. They usually only benefit a small, typically affluent, minority. They also have a significant environmental impact, requiring high water consumption and the use of chemical treatments. "Nevertheless, they often attract less criticism than wind and solar parks," says Jülich systems researcher Jann Weinand, lead author of the study. "This does not necessarily mean that golf courses should be converted. However, it is important to scrutinize how land is distributed - especially given the debate about the land requirements of wind and solar installations."
More space used for golf courses almost everywhere
Using OpenStreetMap data, Weinand and his colleagues analysed the land area used for golf courses in comparison to wind and solar installations in the ten countries with the most golf courses. The US is in the lead with 16,000 golf courses, followed by the UK and Japan with around 3,000 each. In almost all of the countries surveyed, the land area used for golf courses exceeds that used for renewable energies. In Germany, the country's more than 1,000 golf courses occupy an area that is a quarter larger than that of its solar installations. In other countries, the figure is often even higher - in the UK, six times as much land is used for golf courses, and in Canada, sixteen times as much. Only in China are both wind and solar parks dominant in terms of area.
Potential for renewable energies
The scientists calculated how much power could be installed in these countries by using areas the same size as the golf courses. They found that if 25 % of the land were used for renewable energy, wind turbines with a capacity of 174 gigawatts or solar installations of 281 gigawatts could be installed. At 75 % of the land, the figures would be up to 659 gigawatts from wind turbines or 842 gigawatts from solar installations.
"That is more solar power than is currently installed in the ten countries in total, which is currently only around 646 gigawatts," says Weinand. "In Germany, areas equivalent to the size of the golf courses would theoretically be sufficient to generate a large proportion of the electricity currently produced by wind and solar installations."
Original publication: Jann Michael Weinand, Tristan Pelser, Max Kleinebrahm and Detlef StoltenPublished 26 February 2025, Environmental Research Communications
