The Luiret project in Portugal

The widespread deployment of renewable energy technologies, particularly solar and wind, is fundamentally altering landscapes by introducing new land functions, actors, and relationships, which can sometimes lead to land-use conflicts. The ways in which these projects transform the land are diverse, entailing distinct socio-ecological trade-offs. Despite their growing prevalence, a robust analytical approach for understanding these developments as land-based socio-ecological systems is lacking. This study addresses that gap by creating a new conceptual framework. We synthesize existing concepts such as « energyscape » and other typologies to construct a framework for tipifying solar and wind land systems. We apply this framework to the case of Portugal, tracing the deployment of renewable energy and the resulting land systems. The main contribution of this research is to provide a more nuanced and systemic understanding of these transformations, thereby offering the detail necessary to inform and guide more effective and sustainable land-use planning.