Organisers and participants of a workshop to identify potentially suitable areas for renewable energy plants at the THI Campus Neuburg a.d. Donau.

Objective of the research project

A successful and sustainable energy transition requires concepts that can map the techno-economic and socio-ecological complexity of regional siting decisions for renewable energies. To date, however, there has been a lack of well-founded methodological approaches to precisely analyse the positions and interests of the various stakeholders and to visualise them in relation to the stakeholder-related land use for renewable energy plants - for example wind power or photovoltaic plants.

Research approach and methodology

The SmartArea research project analyses the interactions between competing land use claims based on specific stakeholder constellations. The central hypothesis is that the constructive determination of suitable areas for the expansion of renewable energies must not only take into account technical and economic parameters, but also the communication processes between the actors involved in the energy transition.

Visualisation and decision-making with GIS

The aim of the research project is to record the perspectives of various stakeholders on the expansion of renewable energies and to process these using geographic information systems (GIS) in such a way that they are comprehensible to all stakeholders. This enables a constructive dialogue about the value of certain areas for wind or solar installations and helps to

  • recognise the impact of one's own positions on the overall energy system,
  • better understand the viewpoints of other stakeholders,
  • avoid destructive social conflicts at an early stage and
  • realise synergy effects for sustainable regional RE expansion with a high level of acceptance.
  • Overcoming the shortage of land

Another aim of SmartArea is to identify unutilised land potential for renewable energies in order to counteract the increasing scarcity of land. The targeted consideration of stakeholder-specific interests is intended to develop sustainable solutions for the expansion of renewable energies with a high level of social acceptance.

 

(Kopie 2)

Collaboration and interdisciplinary research approach

SmartArea is a joint research project between Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences (THI) and the University of Augsburg. In particular, the THI is responsible for the techno-economic energy system analysis in order to determine the value of different locations for renewable energies, taking into account stakeholder-specific interests and priorities.

Through this inter- and transdisciplinary approach, SmartArea is making a significant contribution to the sustainable and socially acceptable transformation of the energy system.

(Kopie 5)

Research assistant Institute of new Energy Systems (INES)
Robin Tutunaru, M.Sc.
Phone: +49 841 9348-5016
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