Energy Landscapes: Planning

Over 16-18 September 2015 in Dresden, Germany, the Landscape Research Group convened a European conference entitled “Energy Landscapes: Perception, Planning, Participation and Power.”

The conference was co-organised by the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER), with support from Technische Universität Dresden, IRS (Leibniz), COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), and the German-language Landscape Research Network, funded by LRG.

Key questions raised by the conference were:

• Perception – How is the character, perception, assessment and social construction of landscapes influenced by present and past uses of energy?
• Planning – Which types of landscape-related planning and governance regimes exist and how are they linked to landscape planning, spatial planning and energy policy?
• Participation – In the face of energy transitions, to what extent are landscape policies inclusive and participatory? Which actors are involved and who is constituted as an actor in this regard?
• Power – Which power relations shape the interplay of energies and landscapes? How can the workings of power be conceptualised and critically reflected?

Read more about the conference here.

Keynote speaker 2: Professor María José Prados Velasco

Planning

“Unlocking the potential of spatial planning for the development of renewable energy landscapes“

The economic crisis has affected the commitment to energy transition based on renewable resources by, on one hand, halting the construction of large solar power plants (what some in Spain have called the solar bubble) and on the other hand by drastically reducing the profits to be made in energy production.

In view of this situation it is necessary to analyze and discuss the transformation of cultural landscapes into energy landscapes. The siting of these landscapes is not linked to the quality of cultural landscapes, to the energy demands of the local people or indeed spatial planning rules.

This presentation intends to rethink the relationship between renewable energy and energy landscapes from the perspective of spatial planning. Spatial plans are here defined as tools that integrate the actors involved in the construction of renewable energy plants. The analysis of some case studies will help to elucidate the complex development of these projects and the need for regulation by means of a set of planning rules. The goal is to design sustainable land use proposals in the field of energy landscapes.