Countries across the world use more land for golf courses than wind or solar energy

Detlef Stolten; Jann Weinand; Max Kleinebrahm; Tristan Pelser

arxiv: 2412.15376 · v1 · submitted 2024-12-19 · 💰 econ.GN · q-fin.EC

Countries across the world use more land for golf courses than wind or solar energy

Jann Weinand , Tristan Pelser , Max Kleinebrahm , Detlef Stolten This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-23 07:03 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 💰 econ.GN q-fin.EC

keywords land usegolf coursesrenewable energysolar capacitywind capacityenergy transitionland allocationrenewables potential

0 comments

The pith

Golf course land in top countries could support 842 GW solar and 659 GW wind capacity.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper compares land allocated to golf courses against land used for wind and solar facilities in countries worldwide. It establishes that golf courses claim more area than renewables in nations such as the United States and United Kingdom. Equivalent golf land areas could host up to 842 GW of solar and 659 GW of wind capacity across the ten countries with the most golf courses. These amounts surpass both current installed renewable capacity and medium-term projections in many of the countries examined. The analysis draws attention to land reallocation as a route to faster renewable energy expansion.

Core claim

In the top ten countries with the most golf courses, land areas equivalent to those currently used for golf could support the installation of up to 842 GW of solar and 659 GW of wind capacity. In many of these countries, this potential exceeds both current installed capacity and medium-term projections.

What carries the argument

Land area equivalence calculation that converts golf course extents into potential solar and wind capacity using standard power density values.

If this is right

Golf courses occupy more land than wind and solar facilities in countries such as the United States and United Kingdom.
Golf land potential for renewables exceeds existing installed capacity in many of the examined countries.
The calculated renewable potential from golf land also exceeds medium-term national projections in numerous cases.
Reallocating land from golf to energy uses could accelerate national renewable transitions.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

Similar land-use comparisons could be extended to other recreational or leisure facilities such as parks or racetracks.
National energy plans might incorporate golf course inventories when revising renewable siting targets.
Conversion feasibility would still require case-by-case checks for local regulations and environmental constraints.

Load-bearing premise

Land now used for golf courses can be treated as available and suitable for renewable energy installations without major barriers from zoning, ownership, soil, or competing demands.

What would settle it

A detailed land audit in the top ten countries showing that most golf course parcels cannot be converted due to legal protections, unsuitable terrain, or owner resistance would falsify the capacity estimates.

read the original abstract

Land use is a critical factor in the siting of renewable energy facilities and is often scrutinized due to perceived conflicts with other land demands. Meanwhile, substantial areas are devoted to activities such as golf, which are accessible to only a select few and have a significant land and environmental footprint. Our study shows that in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, far more land is allocated to golf courses than to renewable energy facilities. Areas equivalent to those currently used for golf could support the installation of up to 842 GW of solar and 659 GW of wind capacity in the top ten countries with the most golf courses. In many of these countries, this potential exceeds both current installed capacity and medium-term projections. These findings underscore the untapped potential of rethinking land use priorities to accelerate the transition to renewable energy.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

The paper compiles golf course areas and multiplies by standard power densities for new capacity estimates, but the conversion claim rests on an untested assumption.

read the letter

The main point here is a straightforward land-use comparison: golf courses take up more area than current wind and solar installations in several countries, and the authors scale that area by typical power densities to arrive at 842 GW solar and 659 GW wind potential across the top ten golf nations. Those headline numbers are new in their specificity and can be checked against existing capacity data. The paper does a service by pulling together golf land statistics that are not usually set against energy infrastructure in this way. The arithmetic itself looks like simple multiplication using external area figures and off-the-shelf density values, with no circular fitting or invented parameters. That keeps the result transparent if the inputs hold. The soft spot is the leap from area to usable capacity. The calculation treats every hectare of golf land as equivalent to open ground ready for panels or turbines. Golf courses commonly include water features, trees, slopes, and are locked into private or residential zoning that blocks reclassification. Nothing in the abstract or the described approach quantifies how much of the land actually meets siting criteria or cites overlays that would allow conversion. Without that step the potential figures are upper bounds at best. This is the kind of note that might interest readers already following land-use trade-offs in energy policy, but the missing feasibility layer makes the central claim hard to rely on. I would not bring it to a reading group and would not cite the numbers without seeing the data sources and any sensitivity checks. It does not look ready for peer review in this form.

Referee Report

1 major / 1 minor

Summary. The manuscript compares land use for golf courses versus wind and solar facilities, reporting that golf courses occupy more area than renewables in countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. It calculates that areas equivalent to current golf course land in the top ten countries with the most golf courses could support up to 842 GW of solar and 659 GW of wind capacity, often exceeding existing installations and medium-term projections. The central claim is that this demonstrates untapped potential for rethinking land-use priorities to accelerate renewable energy deployment.

Significance. If the capacity estimates were shown to be robust after incorporating site-specific constraints, the work would offer a quantitative illustration of land-use trade-offs between recreational and energy uses, potentially contributing to policy debates on siting priorities. The manuscript does not include machine-checked proofs, reproducible code, or parameter-free derivations.

major comments (1)

[Abstract / potential capacity calculation] Abstract and potential-capacity calculation: the headline figures (842 GW solar, 659 GW wind) are obtained by multiplying reported golf-course areas by standard power densities. This step treats every hectare as equivalent to land that can host turbines or panels at full density, without any quantification of the fraction of golf land that meets basic siting criteria (slope, setback, grid access) or accounts for barriers such as water hazards, mature trees, undulating terrain, residential zoning, conservation easements, or private ownership. No section supplies data, overlays, or sensitivity analysis on conversion feasibility, which is load-bearing for the claim that the potential 'could support' the stated capacities and exceeds current and projected installations.

minor comments (1)

[Abstract] The abstract supplies headline numbers but does not cite the underlying data sources for golf-course areas or renewable capacities; these should be stated explicitly even in a short communication.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

1 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for highlighting the assumptions underlying the headline capacity figures. We address this point directly below and will revise the manuscript accordingly.

read point-by-point responses

Referee: [Abstract / potential capacity calculation] Abstract and potential-capacity calculation: the headline figures (842 GW solar, 659 GW wind) are obtained by multiplying reported golf-course areas by standard power densities. This step treats every hectare as equivalent to land that can host turbines or panels at full density, without any quantification of the fraction of golf land that meets basic siting criteria (slope, setback, grid access) or accounts for barriers such as water hazards, mature trees, undulating terrain, residential zoning, conservation easements, or private ownership. No section supplies data, overlays, or sensitivity analysis on conversion feasibility, which is load-bearing for the claim that the potential 'could support' the stated capacities and exceeds current and projected installations.

Authors: We agree that the calculations multiply total reported golf-course area by standard power densities and do not incorporate site-specific siting criteria or barriers. The figures are therefore upper-bound theoretical maxima illustrating the scale of land area involved, not estimates of immediately deployable capacity. The manuscript's core contribution is the land-use comparison itself; the capacity numbers serve only to contextualize that comparison. We will revise the abstract, introduction, and a new limitations subsection to state explicitly that actual realizable capacity would be lower after accounting for terrain, ownership, zoning, and other constraints, and that no feasibility overlays or sensitivity analysis are provided. We cannot supply the requested quantitative feasibility data or GIS analysis within the scope of this study. revision: partial

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity detected

full rationale

The paper's claims rest on external land-use statistics for golf course areas and renewable installations, combined with standard (non-author-derived) power density multipliers to obtain the 842 GW and 659 GW figures. No equations, fitted parameters, or self-citations are present that reduce any result to the authors' own inputs by construction. The derivation chain is therefore self-contained against independent external benchmarks.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

2 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

The headline GW potentials rest on unstated power-density values for solar and wind plus the domain assumption that golf-course land can be repurposed; these inputs are not supplied or justified in the abstract.

free parameters (2)

solar power density
Required to convert land area to GW potential; value and source not stated in abstract.
wind power density
Required to convert land area to GW potential; value and source not stated in abstract.

axioms (1)

domain assumption Golf course land is suitable and available for solar and wind energy installations
The potential capacity figures depend directly on this conversion premise.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5676 in / 1309 out tokens · 38497 ms · 2026-05-23T07:03:48.563270+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

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