As people's concerns about land use continue to increase, large-scale solar projects are increasingly being built in unconventional locations, such as landfills and reservoirs.

Image Credit: NREL/Dennis Schroeder
A study by Clemson University estimates that by 2040, the U.S. domestic use and export of energy production will increase by 27%. The area of all related facilities may be 124,000 square miles. Taking into account the spacing requirements, the land used for new energy production will be about 500,000 square miles-this area is larger than the entire state of Texas.
However, not all large-scale solar energy needs to be deployed on open space or farmland. Floating photovoltaics, landfill solar and highway right-of-way (ROW) photovoltaics are all potential options.
News source: pv magazine