WIND POWER DEPLOYMENT IN URBANISED REGIONS

Book excerpt: Delivering sustainable energy solutions has become a fundamental task of spatial planning. This dissertation considers the field of tension between higher-tier energy schemes and local-level implementation practices by analysing regional planning policies regarding wind power from an institutional perspective. Institutional challenges in spatial planning are closely related in particular to the flexibility and adaptability of those planning practices that are needed to supply ´acceptable locations´. Similar trends can be detected at a European level: targeted energy values are combined with administratively defined spaces - by putting the zoning of wind energy generation on regional spatial planning agendas. The outlining of wind power zones is not merely a technical act that determines the territorial spread of wind turbines. Rather, it configures social-organisational entities in which regionally varying sets of actors interact and, in the best case, join forces.