Managing spatial sustainability trade-offs: The case of wind power

Paul Lehmann, Kathrin Ammermann, Erik Gawel, Charlotte Geiger, Jennifer Hauck, Jörg Heilmann, Jan-Niklas Meier, Jens Ponitka, Sven Schicketanz, Boris Stemmer, Philip Tafarte, Daniela Thrän and Elisabeth Wolfram

No 4/2020, UFZ Discussion Papers from Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS)

Abstract: The deployment of onshore wind power involves spatial sustainability trade-offs, e.g., between the minimization of energy system costs, the mitigation of impacts on humans and biodiversity, and equity concerns. We analyze challenges arising for decision-making if wind power generation capacity has to be allocated spatially in the presence of such trade-offs. The analysis is based on a game developed for and played by stakeholders in Germany. The results of the game illustrate that there is no unanimously agreed ranking of sustainability criteria among the participating stakeholders. They disagreed not only on the weights of different criteria but also their definition and measurement. Group discussions further revealed that equity concerns mattered for spatial allocation. Yet, stakeholders used quite different concepts of equity. The results support the importance of transparent, multi-level and participatory approaches to take decisions on the spatial allocation of wind power generation capacity.

Keywords: Deliberative methods; equity; Germany; renewable energies; spatial optimization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q01 Q42 Q51 Q57 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ufzdps:42020

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