Socio-Economic Parameters in the Public Acceptance of
Renewable Energy Landscapes
Dr. Bohumil Frantal, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Prof. Martin J. Pasqualetti, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA
One of the first articles dealing with public perceptions of emerging renewable energy landscapes was by a geographer (Pasqualetti & Butler 1987). Although subsequent research has suggested that aesthetic preferences concerning landscape impacts best predict the local acceptance of renewables (e.g., Pasqualetti 2012; Wolsink 2007), recent studies proved that the impact of visibility on acceptance is not linked just to the physical landscape context but also to socio-economic parameters of projects. Others even emphasized that not a visual impact, but perception of health risks, appraisal of community benefits, general community enhancement, and preferences for renewable-generated electricity are the key predictors of local support for renewables (Baxter et al. 2013). While an adaptation to changed landscape character turned out to be a common phenomenon, the negative perceptions concerning increasing electricity prices due to the feed-in tariffs and other subsidies, the noise annoyance from wind turbines or a smell from biogas stations, and uncertainties surrounding the long term effects and health risks of these facilities seem to persist years after construction was completed (Groth & Vogt 2014, Martinat et al. 2017). After three decades of our co-existence with renewable energy landscapes, there are still many unanswered questions regarding public perceptions and a wider diffusion and adoption of renewables, and there are other concepts besides the invalid NIMBY theory that need to be revised and/or adapted in the light of the latest developments, such as the U-curve theory, the proximity hypothesis, the spatial and distributional justice, the resource curse, et cetera. These and other issues will be discussed in this paper session.
Interested participants should send abstracts to frantal@geonika.cz by October 30. Participants will be notified of acceptance and inclusion into the session by turn.
Recycling Energy Landscapes in a Crowded World
Organizers:
Dr. Stanislav Martinat, Institute of Geonics, The Czech Academy of Sciences
Prof. Martin J. Pasqualetti, Arizona State University, Tempe
Over the centuries, energy development has largely been a linear enterprise, ending in landscapes disrupted, abandoned, poisoned, and forgotten. This approach is no longer viable. The ongoing “third energy transition” (Whipple, 2011) – a transition from fossil fuels that underpinned the industrial age – to a post-industrial era characterized by increasing competition between the land used for energy development and the land needed for cities, farms, recreation, and contemplation. In many countries, there is increasing pressure to regenerate, reclaim, and redevelop the abandoned, derelict and contaminated areas left behind. These include abandoned mines, processing equipment, waste heaps, disused oil and gas wells, and other traditional energy landscapes. The repurposing of these landscapes – and often disused buildings that rest on them – has become increasingly imperative and economically sensible in the last two decades as competition for land has increased and as emerging policies and economic instruments have grown to support the regeneration processes (e.g., the Re-powering America´s land Initiative, EPA, 2013). We have now reached a period when “recycling“ energy landscapes is occurring with increasing frequency. Examples of this new stage in land use include converting opencast mines to recreational lakes, power plant buildings into museums, sites of mountain-top removal into golf courses, ash disposal piles into the solar farms, canals paths into bike paths, and a wide assortment of energy infrastructure into destinations for „energy tourism“ (Frantál & Urbánková, 2017). This session is intended to identify the need, forms, incentives, and barriers to recycling energy landscapes.
Interested participants should send abstracts to martinat@geonika.cz by October 30. Participants will be notified of acceptance and inclusion into the session by turn.