EU countries have a very ambitious objective in terms of the production of electricity from renewable sources which finds its main foundation in the various programs in force aiming to tackle climate change. In addition, the energy crisis following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in February 2022 is offering to renewables an increasingly central role in terms of energy security for EU countries. For instance, in Germany, where a great commitment on renewable energy exists, the government wants to double the installed capacity of onshore wind power by 2030 (from 56 to 115 GW) and increase offshore photovoltaic solar power from 59 GW to 215 GW._x000D_
This great ambition, that will be mainly satisfied by the installation of intermittent energy renewable infrastructures, has strong geographical repercussions. While it is trivial to observe it will imply significant transformations in land use of large portions of the earth’s surface, little can be said about the opportunities and challenges for the territories that will host such projects. In fact, when current renewable energy projects around Europe are analysed, a variety of situations emerge. Not only there are differences concerning the density of the infrastructure on the space, but also in terms of contextual characteristics of the host regions, actors involved in the projects, acceptability by local community members, to name just a few._x000D_
This contribution aims to reflect on the complexities of studying the impacts of renewable energy projects developed in rural areas. We argue that the identification of the key characteristics of the host regions, and in particular a deep understanding of the past or present role of the agricultural activity in such contexts, is strongly needed in order to predict the economic, socio-demographic, environmental impacts that the energy transition projects will have.
Giorgia Bressan (1), Carlos Gonçalves (2), Michel Deshaies (3)
(1) Università degli Studi di Roma «Tor Vergata», Rome, Italy, (2) Universidade de Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal, (3) Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France
ID Abstract: 715