ENERGYSCAPE

New Results on the Inclusion of Landscape Preferences and Ecosystem Services in Renewable Energy Siting Scenarios Adopting a comprehensive approach in Switzerland, this study redefines the siting process for renewable energy by integrating ecosystem services and societal preferences, thereby enhancing traditional methodologies that primarily prioritize technical and economic factors."

Further information about the project and the project team can be found at https://www.energyscape.ethz.ch

Securing the energy turnaround requires the successful implementation of renewable energy infrastructures in our landscape. It is known that providing legal planning certainty increases confidence and social acceptance of planned changes. In Switzerland, concepts and sectoral plans allow coordinating spatially relevant tasks among institutions and exist for transmission lines and for wind energy (concept). Current planning practice is however usually done for one type of energy system in a site-specific manner: There is no Swiss-wide and cross-sectoral weighting of interests and a spatial coordination of tasks for a mix of renewable energy infrastructures and their prioritization in the various landscape types in Switzerland is missing. While we know that perceptual impacts caused by renewable energy systems on a specific landscape type are one of the most important factors in explaining opposition or support for such infrastructures, knowledge about the judgment of landscape effects of a mix of such infrastructures in various landscape contexts is missing.

This project focuses thus on assessing public judgments of the landscape effects stimulated by a mix of renewable energy systems in Swiss landscapes. The ultimate goal is the formulation of recommendations for a prioritization of such systems in the different Swiss landscapes, as a basis for a landscape strategy with renewable energy systems.

Using state-of-the-art virtual visual-acoustic simulations of the renewable energy system developments in the various landscapes, we will give participants the opportunity to develop judgments for or against potential changes. Physiological and cognitive measurements including a set of indicators to be considered for landscape quality assessment will be used to assess the preferences for the presented developments.

Recommendations will then be developed in an iterative process with the institutions and practice. Contributing herewith to fast implementation procedures will secure competiveness of Swiss energy providers. Furthermore, as an input to a sectoral energy plan, the results will help break down barriers and potential (often landscape-related) opposition in early planning phases.

Finally, recommendations are developed in an iterative process with the research institutions and institutions from practice and administration. This will contribute to a rapid implementation process to ensure the competitiveness of Swiss energy providers. As input for a sectoral energy plan, the results will also help to reduce barriers and possible (often landscape-related) resistance in early planning phases. The results will also be communicated to decision-makers who are currently far away from the landscape in order to generate awareness for this challenge.

• Salak B, Hunziker M, Grêt-Regamey A, Spielhofer R, Wissen Hayek U, Kienast F (2024) Shifting from techno-economic to socio-ecological priorities: Incorporating landscape preferences and ecosystem services into the siting of renewable energy infrastructure. PLOS ONE 19(4): e0298430. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298430
• B. Salak, K. Lindberg, F. Kienast, et al., Landscape-technology fit: The missing link to society in renewable energy landscape development, (2023), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sctalk.2023.100126
• Salak B., Kienast F., Olschewski R., Spielhofer R., Wissen Hayek U., Grêt-Regamey A., Hunziker M. (2022) Impact on the perceived landscape quality through renewable energy infrastructure. A discrete choice experiment in the context of the Swiss energy transition Renew. Energy 193, 299-308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2022.04.154
• Salak B., Lindberg K., Kienast F., Hunziker M. (2021) How landscape-technology fit affects public evaluations of renewable energy infrastructure scenarios. A hybrid choice model Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 143, 110896 (13 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110896
• Salak B., Lindberg K., Kienast F., Hunziker M. (2021) Hybrid choice model dataset of a representative Swiss online panel survey on peoples' preferences related to mixed renewable energy scenarios in landscapes and the effect of landscape-technology fit Data Brief 36, 107025 (21 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2021.107025
• Spielhofer R., Thrash T., Wissen Hayek U., Grêt-Regamey A., Salak B., Grübel J., Schinazi V.R. (2021) Physiological and behavioral reactions to renewable energy systems in various landscape types Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 135, 110410 (11 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110410
• Salak B., Kienast F., Olschewski R., Spielhofer R., Wissen U., Grêt-Regamey A., Hunziker M. (2019) steuerBAR? Wo wollen wir "Energielandschaften" und wo nicht? In A. Björnsen Gurung (Ed.), WSL Berichte: Vol. 84. Schweiz erneuerbar!. Birmensdorf: Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft. 15-22. https://doi.org/10.55419/wsl:21922