Golf Courses, Potential Solar Farms

Golf Courses, Potential Solar Farms

Golf Courses Potential Solar Farms: Golf courses account for 2 million acres of US land.¹ There are about 16,000 courses in the US² and “most golf courses are spread across 110 to 190 acres.”³ Golf is on the decline, with a 22% loss of golfers (6.8 million) from 2003 to 2018^4, and more than 800 golf courses have shut down in the US as people between 18 and 30 “have a lack of interest in playing the game.”⁵

Environmental Concerns

Courses consume large amounts of water which, especially, is a concern in the desert and drought-facing areas. For example, Palm Springs has 57 golf courses and each of them uses the amount of water “an American family of four uses in four years”⁶ each day. California has 1,140 courses and just reducing water usage by a quarter would save 37 million gallons of water per day.⁷ US courses are using about “2.08 billion gallons of water per day for irrigation…about 130,000 gallons per day per course, according to the golf industry.⁷ However, Audubon International estimates “that the average American course uses 312,000 gallons per day.”⁶

“a toxic assortment of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides…can harm golf course workers and players, drift onto neighboring properties, seep into ground or well water, and devastate local wildlife.”⁸

Continued

Pesticide and fertilizer use in golf courses is another area of concern. Like copious amounts of water, they’re used to keep up with the green, pristine aesthetic of courses. Nitrates can contaminate groundwater and is a health hazard as people consume it through their water⁹and through the food chain.⁹ Nitrogen and phosphorus pollute surface waters and can lead to eutrophication – the process by which excessive nutrients from land runoff lead to increased plant and algae (blooms) growth in estuaries and coastal waters, then leading to “low-oxygen (hypoxic) waters that can kill fish and seagrass and reduce essential fish habitats,”¹⁰ resulting in large amounts of carbon dioxide in the water after decomposition of the surplus algae and plants. Plus erosion leading to sedimentation, “primarily a concern during construction, and can cause damage to streams and lakes”⁹ and can carry pesticides, fertilizers, and other nutrients into waterways.

“..there is growing acknowledgment of the damage golf courses can inflict by changing existing open space ecology; denigrating wetlands, sensitive aquifers or habitat; or contributing to runoff carrying pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and fertilizers.”⁴

However golf courses aren’t all bad, there is evidence suggesting golf courses can maintain green-area habitats and biodiversity in urban areas¹¹ and can be used as “wildlife sanctuaries”⁹ in certain situations. Of course, if the golf course is near or in “wetlands, forests, and other environmentally sensitive areas”⁹, there is more of a threat posed to land and habitat loss (wildlife fragmentation, degradation of natural areas, natural plant community replacement with intensively managed landscapes and non-native plants¹²).

Repurposing Golf Courses Into Potential Solar Farms

PHOTO FROM PV MAGAZINE¹³: Japan’s (Kyocera-backed) Kanoya Osaki Solar Hills Solar Power Plant.

Repurposing golf courses into solar farms have come to fruition in Japan. Kyocera is “a multinational electronics manufacturer”¹⁴ which has made more than 60 solar power plants in Japan. The Kyocera’s joint-venture solar plant, from the picture above, opened in 2020.¹⁵ It’s a 100 MW plant that’s “expected to generate some 117,000 MWh per year.”¹³

The plant goes “over an area, originally designed for a golf course, of almost 2,000,000 square meters, between Kanoya and Osaki. This is almost equivalent to the size of the Principality of Monaco.”¹⁵

Another Kyocera solar power plant located on an abandoned golf course started operation in 2018 in Yonago City.¹⁶ The plant’s capacity is 29.2 MW and is expected to produce 36,080 MWh per year which is “enough electricity to power approximately 12,000 typical households.”¹⁶ Kyocera also finished construction on the largest Japanese floating solar farm in 2018.¹⁴

Some motivation behind Japan’s renewable energy projects stems from looking for “alternatives to nuclear energy after the Fukushima disaster of 2011.”¹⁴

Other, more common forms of golf course repurposing in the US, include the creation of affordable housing, parks, “shops, community centers, libraries, schools, and all sorts of other buildings that could help rebuild a long-lost sense of community”¹⁷ in urban, suburban areas. However, there still are a few plans to turn golf courses into solar farms in the US. Duke Energy Renewables had purchased a 24.9 MW solar project, “located on the site of the former Tallgrass Golf Course in Brookhaven,”¹⁸ New York. It’s estimated to produce 1 million MWh of energy in its lifetime and “displace 29,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.”¹⁹

As of this year, there has been a proposal to turn Cape Cod Country Club’s golf course in Falmouth, Massachusetts, into a solar farm. The Club had been looking for new uses since 2019, and if permitting goes as planned, 80 acres of the golf courses’ 150 acres would be used to produce 27-30 MW.²⁰

The Pine Brook Community Solar Farm is currently under development in Gloversville. New York. It would use 32 acres of the former Pine Brook Golf Course²¹ and produce enough energy to power 1,225 homes.²² With a capacity of 7.5MWp, the farm will “absorb 310,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.”²³ But that’s not all Eden Renewables wants to do with their 57 acres of the original golf course, the company also wants to use the area for supporting bees and pollinators with wildflower meadow habitats²³ which will provide “pollination services for local farmers, and produce local honey.”²² Alongside promoting biodiversity the site will have recreational areas and be used as an educational resource for local schools.²²