Environmental Impact Assessment of Photovoltaic Parks Through a RIAM-Based Environmental Indicator Matrix

Photovoltaic parks support climate change mitigation by generating low-emission electricity. However, their environmental impacts strongly depend on site features and proximity to environmentally sensitive areas. The aim of the present paper is to develop and apply an innovative methodological framework that integrates an environment-based Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix with selected indicators. Six environmental components are linked to ten measurable indicators. Each indicator is documented through an inventory sheet and evaluated using adapted RIAM criteria. The proposed methodology is applied to the existing photovoltaic farm installations located in the Regional Unit of Messinia, Greece. The results show that most indicators produced positive Environmental Scores across the examined installations. The negative impacts are mainly associated with the proximity of the projects to wildlife refuges. The largest variations were associated with distance from wildlife refuges and forested areas, with standard deviations of 67.9 and 58.4, respectively. PV7 received major negative Environmental Scores of −96 and −72 because it is located within a wildlife refuge and forested land, while PV8 received a score of −72 due to its overlap with sclerophyllous vegetation. On the other hand, the positive impacts are mainly reflected in CO2 reduction across all photovoltaic parks in the study area. These findings confirm that appropriate site selection of photovoltaic parks is a decisive factor in either reducing or eliminating environmental impacts. The proposed methodology can be applied to any photovoltaic farm and study area, enabling quantification of environmental impacts and facilitating comparative assessment of these projects.