Increasing use of renewable sources of energy (RSE) creates new pressures and tensions in relation to land use. For much of the industrial age, the dominance of fossil fuels has focussed land pressures on extraction fields and on those places where energy infrastructures are built. However, novel sources of energy, including renewable sources, require more space, more surface. The quantity of land occupied varies according to the energy source but the net result appears to be an increase in the pressure on open, less densely populated, low productive areas. For the most part, these are rural areas
