Stephan Bosch

Policy Highlights: To achieve the recommendation stated in the chapter title, we propose the following: Ensure the follow-up and implementation of EU policy measures, including by conducting quality assessments and introducing national community energy targets. Foster institutional allies at local and regional levels. Provide access to and capacities for using digital planning tools. Nurture knowledge and method integration across STEM and SSH disciplines to develop practices and tools to effectively implement community-led initiatives.

For a sustainable energy transition, concepts are needed that can map the techno-economic, socio-ecological, spatial and temporal complexity of regional site decisions for renewable energies (RE). Remarkable in this respect is that so far hardly any knowledge is available on how to design a computer-based methodological approach that precisely analyses and reflects the individual positions of the regional actors of the energy transition and visualises them with respect to the specificity of the actor-related land use interests. Our study therefore aims to analyse the complex interactions between the diverse competing land use claims. The central thesis is that a sustainable deployment of RE has to address in particular the communication processes between actors of the energy transition. Hence, we aim to capture the specific perspectives of certain stakeholders on the expansion of renewable energies. In doing so, we want to visualise the results by means of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in such a way that they can be understood by each stakeholder or citizen and subsequently allow a constructive debate on the suitability of certain areas for the RE expansion. Favourable and unfavourable renewable energy sites cannot be generalised from the outset, rather they are linked to the interests, values and norms of the actors (e.g. cost minimisation, sustainability, land use efficiency, landscape aesthetics).In order to analyse this complex interplay of technological, economic, ecological and social parameters and to be able to carry out a standardised evaluation of a socially balanced regional renewable energy deployment, this study will introduce an innovative GIS-based methodology. Our approach helps to deal with the competing social interpretations and constructs of all regional stakeholders that strive for a sustainable energy future.

With the Paris Agreement, it was decided to limit global warming to below two degrees. Hence, national governments are currently confronted with the challenge of implementing concrete climate protection measures. This poses a major challenge especially for Germany, as the phase-out of low-emission nuclear energy additionally increases the pressure to rapidly promote the expansion of renewable energies. Unfortunately, there is a great variety of potential regional energy strategies, which differ considerably in terms of landscape implications. Therefore, we analysed the spatial restructuring of energy supply and the associated social conflicts. To do so, we modelled potential regional energy landscapes that can be derived from the two-degree target and visualised them based on Geographical Information Systems by using five scenarios involving changes to the planning guidelines. The analyses reveal that the development of a carbon-neutral energy system is possible. Yet the potential spatial patterns of renewable energies differ considerably. Furthermore, it becomes obvious that spatial planning must take greater account of the perspectives of those social groups facing the installation of renewable energies in the very vicinity of their own living environment.

To date, the spatio-temporal patterns of renewable energies brought about by a deployment that corresponds to internationally agreed climate protection goals, have been neither exactly analysed nor visualised. It is also unknown what land uses would be incorporated into these new energy landscapes due to a lack of spatial restrictions, and what social conflicts these land use changes may give rise to. Moreover, the extent to which existing land use, which is the product of a capitalist order, affects the achievement of a carbon-neutral society, has not been grasped at all. There is no knowledge about the feasibility of altering spatial restrictions for renewable energies in order to identify alternative spatial patterns of sustainable energy transition. Our objective is therefore to model and visualise a regional energy landscape whose greenhouse gas balance in the electricity sector corresponds to the target of the UN Climate Conference. The study provides a detailed analysis of the landscape transformations in rural spaces that would be caused if those forces which strive to link the energy transition to the values of the Paris Agreement were to win through. It is revealed that a precise alignment of the expansion of renewable energies with international climate protection targets would strongly mechanise rural areas and significantly transform their land use patterns.

Potential spatio-temporal patterns of renewable energies that take into account international climate protection strategies have been neither analysed nor visualised exactly in terms of their landscape complexity. Furthermore, it is unclear what land uses would be prevalent in new energy landscapes, due to a lack of restrictions, and which social conflicts would be associated with these land use changes. There is no knowledge at all about the extent to which existing land use, which has emerged from a capitalistic order, affects the achievement of a carbon-neutral and socially just society. It is also not clear how far it is possible to identify alternative spatial patterns of sustainable energy transition by altering spatial restrictions concerning renewable energies. For this reason, we want to model and visualise a regional energy landscape that corresponds to the objectives of the UN Climate Conference in terms of its regional greenhouse gas balance in the electricity sector. In this regard, the study provides a detailed analysis of the landscape transformations that would occur in rural spaces if those values which attempt to link energy transition to the Paris Agreement were to prevail. The analyses reveal that a strict orientation of the expansion of renewable energies towards climate protection goals would strongly mechanise rural areas, thus significantly transforming their social patterns.

The study analyses the characteristic features of energy landscapes. By the example of the German energy transition, it is discussed in how far they are an expression of social inequality and injustice. Based on a review of the literature on socio-technical and socio-ecological dimensions of energy landscapes, the central findings will be integrated into Henri Lefebvre's concept “The Production of Space”. Thereby, those social spaces are identified which are constructed by the powerful actors of the energy transition on the basis of neoliberal spatial concepts and which become the origins of unequal and unjust energy landscapes. Furthermore, it will be discussed whether and how energy landscapes can be distinguished from other landscapes and where these boundaries run when the representative and discursive features of energy landscapes are brought to the fore. The study reveals that Lefebvre's spatial concept is well suited to expose the powerfully enforced and socially unbalanced territorial structures of energy landscapes and to distinguish them from the symbolic, emotional, and idealistic reference points that arise from the everyday life in these landscapes. It becomes clear that infrastructure measures for climate protection only appear socially viable if the production of sustainable energy landscapes is understood as the production of a discourse about sustainability, equality, and justice. Zusammenfassung Im Rahmen der Studie werden die charakteristischen Eigenschaften von Energielandschaften analysiert und dahingehend erörtert, wie sie am Beispiel der deutschen Energiewende Ausdruck gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheiten und Ungerechtigkeiten sind. Auf Basis eines Literatur-Reviews zu den soziotechnischen und sozioökologischen Dimensionen von Energielandschaften werden hierzu die zentralen Befunde in das von Henri Lefebvre entwickelte Konzept „Die Produktion des Raumes“ eingeordnet. Dadurch ist es möglich, jene sozialen Räume zu identifizieren, die von den machtvollen Akteuren der Energiewende auf Basis neoliberaler Raumkonzepte konstruiert und zu Ausgangspunkten ungleicher und ungerechter Energielandschaften werden. Des Weiteren soll erörtert werden, ob und wie Energielandschaften von anderen Landschaften abgegrenzt werden können und wo diese Grenzen verlaufen, wenn die repräsentativen und diskursiven Merkmale von Energielandschaften in den Vordergrund gerückt werden. Die Studie offenbart, dass Lefebvres raumtheoretisches Konzept sich gut dazu eignet, die mit Macht durchsetzten und sozial unausgewogenen territorialen Strukturen von Energielandschaften freizulegen und von den symbolischen, emotionalen und ideellen Bezugspunkten, die sich aus dem Leben der Menschen in diesen Landschaften ergeben, zu unterscheiden. Darüber hinaus wird deutlich, dass Infrastrukturmaßnahmen zum Klimaschutz nur dann gesellschaftlich tragfähig erscheinen, wenn die Produktion nachhaltiger Energielandschaften zuallererst als Produktion eines Diskurses um Nachhaltigkeit, Gleichheit und Gerechtigkeit begriffen wird.

The implementation of many small power stations compensates the closing of powerful large power plants as part of the German Energy Transition is compensated. It is unclear how site decisions are made, which actors are involved, and which economic, ecological, and social consequences occur. The quantitative study consists of a written postal survey of renewable energy plant operators, concerning central aspects of project development. The study found strong regional disparities concerning the entrepreneurial behavior of plant operators of renewable energies, a low importance of socio-institutional and socio-cultural parameters, a great relevance of micro-social environment during site planning of renewable energy plants, and that plant operators are highly influenced by economic and individual desires. It may be concluded that the perspectives operators have on the Energy Transitions must be more systematically included into the discourse regarding the sustainable deployment of renewable energies, as they reveal significant disparities with topics that are emphasized by the public (e.g., landscape aesthetic, citizens’ participation). It was shown that the challenges and problems that arise in the context of regional energy transformation cannot be generalized beyond regional circumstances; rather, they must be regarded as specific regional phenomena that have to be overcome by means of regionally adapted energy concepts.