9/5/2015 Dr. Christian Zuidema University of Groningen | Faculty of Spatial Sciences Department of Spatial planning & the environment The relevance of.

04/21/23

Dr. Christian Zuidema

University of Groningen | Faculty of Spatial SciencesDepartment of Spatial planning & the environment

The relevance of spatial planning; towards energylandscapes

04/21/23

Today:Today:

1| The problem of an energy transition2| A role for spatial planners3| The Energy Landscape as a vehicle 4| Conclusions

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1| The problem of an Energy 1| The problem of an Energy TransitionTransition

Towards sustainable energy Towards sustainable energy systems? systems?

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› Obama; Oval Office Speech 15-06-2010; “For decades, we have known the days of cheap

and easily accessible oil were numbered.  For decades, we’ve talked and talked about the need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels.  And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires…

Towards sustainable energy Towards sustainable energy systems? systems?

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› Why is it so difficult?

1| Our high needs for energy2| Economic Importance3| Invested power relations4| Existing investments

The complexity of an energy The complexity of an energy transitiontransition

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› “Problems are a complex web of interrelated actors and networks, both in a physical, economic, social and institutional sense.”

› “Apart from limitations to fully oversee and grasp such a complex web, ownership and power are fragmented, limiting the capacity of any actor to alter them”

(De Boer & Zuidema 2013)

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- Involves processes of self-organisation and co-evolution, involving the linking of processes of change in various societal, economic, and technological domains

Transforms a system from one dynamic equilibrium to another

TransitionsTransitions

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Transitions Transitions

- In ‘niches’, at the fringe of the energy system, innovative (bottom-up) energy initiatives experiment in relative isolation and develop through learning-by-doing (Kemp 1998)

- Some ‘niche’ developments can up-scale, for example in size, span of activities, political influence (Gillespie 2004) and can combine.

- The up-scaling of such ‘niche’ developments based on renewables can create a new development pathway for the energy system (cf. Kemp et al. 2007, Simmie 2012).

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Transition Management?Transition Management?

›Learning-by-doing; uncertainty forces us to learn from the past and present and to experiment in niches›Be reflexive and both flexible & robust: avoid rigidness and allow for local specificieties, keep options open and don’t through away the old before the new is clear›Involve multiple levels: linking societal debates & values (macro), government regimes & routines (meso), people & projects (micro)

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Transition Management?Transition Management?

But this remains fairly abstract… what can we do in practice?

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2| A Role for Spatial Planners2| A Role for Spatial Planners

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Energy LandscapesEnergy LandscapesPre-historic (Generation Zero)

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Energy LandscapesEnergy LandscapesPre-historic (Generation Zero)

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Energy LandscapesEnergy LandscapesFirst Generation Energy Landscape

-Produce where consumed -Space is decisive

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Energy LandscapesEnergy LandscapesSecond Generation Energy Landscape

- Tesla: AC

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Energy LandscapesEnergy LandscapesSecond Generation Energy Landscape

- Fossil fuel- Energy is ‘Footloose’- Space is Implicit

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Energy LandscapesEnergy LandscapesThird Generation Energy Landscape?

Present

FuturePast

Energy Transition

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Consequences of a Third Consequences of a Third GenerationGeneration- Due to lower power densities we need much more

space- ‘The’ answer is not there yet; try many different

options (do what we can)- Renewables are typically more visible (above the

ground)- Energy security is an issue; wind, sun, biomass…

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A role for Spatial Planning?A role for Spatial Planning?Designing a new ‘energy landscape’

Interdependence between energy and the physical/spatial landscape:

• What are the local possibilities? | Allocation• Integration in Physical Landscape | NIMBY

| Regional development

• Linking Production and Consumption | Robust networks

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A role for Spatial Planning?A role for Spatial Planning?Designing a new ‘energy landscape’

Interdependence between energy and the social/institutional landscape:

• Connecting Interests and Stakeholders • Enabling and Stimulating Innovation • Constraining Negative Impacts

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A role for Spatial Planning?A role for Spatial Planning?

We can see the notion of an ‘Energy Landscape’ as a vehicle for the energy transition:

-By accepting that the energy transition may well materialise in interdependence with the physical and socio-economic landscape-Energy initiatives are then integrated in their area-based physical and socio-economic context, where these area-based practices are ‘niches’ in terms of transition management

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3| The Energy Landscape as a 3| The Energy Landscape as a vehiclevehicle

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Substantive GuidanceSubstantive Guidance

1| Area-based energy initiatives tend to become less vulnerable and more viable when integrated in their surrounding landscape.

Windenergy ‘Veenkoloniën’N33 / Borger-Odoorn

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Substantive GuidanceSubstantive Guidance

1| Area-based energy initiatives tend to become less vulnerable and more viable when integrated in their surrounding landscape.

Haarlose veld

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Substantive GuidanceSubstantive Guidance

2| Area-based integration provides a direction for the up-scaling of energy initiatives through clustering together and by producing diversified and robust regional or national energy systems.

Clustering (Ring Parkstad)

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Substantive GuidanceSubstantive Guidance

2| Area-based integration provides a direction for the up-scaling of energy initiatives through clustering together and by producing diversified and robust regional or national energy systems.

Differentiation

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Substantive GuidanceSubstantive Guidance

3| Area-based systems can help produce synergies between different socio-economic developments, allowing for the kind of co-evolution that can make the energy transition a real societal transition.

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Procedural GuidanceProcedural GuidanceChallenges:

›Physically there is a need to respond to local specificities, such as embedding energy in their local landscapes and decentralised infrastructure, and to integrate local initiatives in national systems

›Social-institutional there is a need for new partnership arrangements and financial contracts that emerge around local initiatives

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Procedural GuidanceProcedural Guidance

›So not just top-down as happens in Dutch context;

›National government, supporting agencies and large companies make big projects and business cases…›What about the more than 300 local initiatives and their governance … (Hieropgewekt 2012)

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Procedural GuidanceProcedural GuidanceA need for both centralised and decentralised governance

›Centralized: tax regimes, energy security, differentiation on higher scales -> setting conditions›Decentralized: benefit from proximity of local authorities to local circumstances, linkages and stakeholder

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4| Conclusions4| Conclusions

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Back to TransitionsBack to TransitionsSelf Organisation?

Processes of co-evolution of multiple changes in socio-technical systems, the economy, our spatial and institutional landscapes and on multiple levels

Co-evolution is about linkages…. What about physical and socio-institutional integration?

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Central Conclusion (for now)Central Conclusion (for now)

Currently, some conflate the idea of a ‘niche’ only with technological innovation or economic entrepreneurship

However, ‘niches’ also involve the societal, institutional and spatial innovations that occur around energy initiatives

The image of an integrated energy landscape can be a vehicle for understanding these innovations, identifying possible directions they point at and trying to govern them.

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Questions & Discussion