1. 9/5/2015 Dr. Christian Zuidema University of Groningen | Faculty of Spatial Sciences Department of Spatial planning & the environment The relevance of spatial planning; towards energylandscapes

2. 9/5/2015 Today: 1| The problem of an energy transition 2| A role for spatial planners 3| The Energy Landscape as a vehicle 4| Conclusions

3. 05/09/2015 | 3 1| The problem of an Energy Transition

4. Towards sustainable energy systems? 05/09/2015 | 4 ›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…

5. Towards sustainable energy systems? 05/09/2015 | 5 ›Why is it so difficult? 1| Our high needs for energy 2| Economic Importance 3| Invested power relations 4| Existing investments

6. The complexity of an energy transition 05/09/2015 | 6 ›“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)

7. 05/09/2015 | 7 -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 Transitions

8. 05/09/2015 | 8 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).

9. 05/09/2015 | 9 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)

10. 05/09/2015 | 10 Transition Management? But this remains fairly abstract… what can we do in practice?

11. 05/09/2015 | 11 2| A Role for Spatial Planners

12. 05/09/2015 | 12 Energy Landscapes Pre-historic (Generation Zero)

13. 05/09/2015 | 13 Energy Landscapes Pre-historic (Generation Zero)

14. 05/09/2015 | 14 Energy Landscapes First Generation Energy Landscape -Produce where consumed -Space is decisive

15. 05/09/2015 | 15 Energy Landscapes Second Generation Energy Landscape -Tesla: AC

16. 05/09/2015 | 16 Energy Landscapes Second Generation Energy Landscape -Fossil fuel -Energy is ‘Footloose’ -Space is Implicit

17. 05/09/2015 | 17 Energy Landscapes Third Generation Energy Landscape? Present Future Past Energy Transition

18. 05/09/2015 | 18 Consequences of a Third Generation -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…

19. 05/09/2015 | 19 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

20. 05/09/2015 | 20 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

21. 05/09/2015 | 21 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

22. 05/09/2015 | 22 3| The Energy Landscape as a vehicle

23. 05/09/2015 | 23 Substantive 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

24. 05/09/2015 | 24 Substantive Guidance 1| Area-based energy initiatives tend to become less vulnerable and more viable when integrated in their surrounding landscape. Haarlose veld

25. 05/09/2015 | 25 Substantive 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)

26. 05/09/2015 | 26 Substantive 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

27. 05/09/2015 | 27 Substantive 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.

28. 05/09/2015 | 28 Procedural Guidance Challenges: ›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

29. 05/09/2015 | 29 Procedural 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)

30. 05/09/2015 | 30 Procedural Guidance A 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

31. 05/09/2015 | 31 4| Conclusions

32. 05/09/2015 | 32 Back to Transitions Self 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?

33. 9/5/2015 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.

34. 9/5/2015 Questions & Discussion