The Luiret Project

Land use implications of the renewable energy transition

To mitigate climate change, most electricity production will come from renewable energy (RE) sources. A challenge is that RE has a much larger land footprint than conventional energy sources. Spatial constraints severely limit the expansion of RE capacity due to: (i) competition against other land uses, (ii) public opposition, and (iii) restrictive legislation given the impacts of RE infrastructure on landscapes. We therefore need to understand land use impacts of the energy transition and how stakeholders are making land use decisions.

Research question:

How do land managers and stakeholders make land use decisions with respect to wind and solar energy deployment on various territories?

Research hypothesis

Among other things, we are testing whether co-locating and integrating renewable energy production with other land uses decreases the overall impacts of wind and solar energy infrastructure on landscapes compared to a spatial concentration of renewable energy production with an exclusive use of the land.

Places where we work:

We conduct our research in three regions:

Belgium
Portugal
Western Alps

Conceptual model: