Sustainability trade-offs at the nexus of solar energy, agriculture, and biodiversity

Abstract

A rapid transition to renewable energy is necessary for achieving global decarbonization targets, but siting conflicts, particularly beyond the built environment, remain a key barrier to sustainable development. At the same time, climate-induced pressures on biodiversity intensify the socio-ecological trade-offs within the energy-agriculture-biodiversity nexus. Using New York State as a case study, we assess the geographic implications of utility-scale solar energy development under competing land-use priorities. We apply a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) optimization model to evaluate solar buildout across three distinct scenarios: minimizing cost, prioritizing agricultural preservation, and conserving biodiversity, employing a lexicographic hierarchy to enforce a strict ordering of stakeholder priorities. Results indicate that New York can meet its mid-century decarbonization goals by deploying 46,216 MW _dc of solar energy, however, achieving this goal involves considerable land-use trade-offs. A cost-minimizing scenario disproportionately targets pasture and hay lands (> 40,000 ha), nearly half of which overlap with grassland bird habitat and broader biodiversity areas. Prioritizing agriculture spares ~80 % of farmland but creates potential for deforestation of over 41,000 ha. Biodiversity-conscious siting avoids ecologically sensitive areas and increases the annualized total costs by 0.17 %, indicating economic feasibility. Our findings highlight the need for spatially informed, integrative land-use strategies that reconcile climate goals with ecological and agricultural values. By linking geospatial optimization with socio-ecological criteria, this work contributes a transferable framework to inform just and ecologically responsible energy transitions in multifunctional landscapes, offering new insights into how geography can advance sustainable development.

Keywords

Biodiversity / Energy transition / Agriculture / Renewable energy / Technical potential / Sustainability trade-offs / Land-use change

Data availability

All data sources used in our analyses are publicly available, with sources directly cited in the References.

Declaration of competing interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Adam Gallaher: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Methodology, Formal analysis. Theodore Koch: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Methodology, Data curation. Elizabeth L. Kalies: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization. Peter B. Woodbury: Writing – review & editing, Methodology, Data curation. Steven M. Grodsky: Writing – review & editing, Writing – original draft, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Formal analysis, Conceptualization.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US Government.

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