RGI and the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP) are leading the International Energy Agency (IEA) UsersTCP Task "Public Engagement for Energy Infrastructure", which aims to:
The project focuses on public engagement in the context of building renewable energy generation plants (wind turbines, solar systems and biomass) as well as electricity transmission and distribution grids.
Over the past years and decades, many participation and involvement processes and practices have been developed, but no comprehensive overview of factors for success/failure exists. The Task hopes to start filling this information gap by evaluating past and current participatory actions and drawing lessons for effective engagement including useful formats and degrees of involvement.
The researchers behind this task aim to provide transferable and actionable guidance for future engagement activities done by project developers and public authorities.
Throughout the task, we have involved stakeholders, specifically in the form of interviews and workshop participation. Based on their inputs as well as a comprehensive literature analysis, a best practice guide for public participation in energy infrastructure is being developed.
This will also lead to the provision of policy-relevant insights on effective engagement of the public in energy infrastructure developments – all with the overall aim of improving project acceptability as well as support for and speed of the energy transition.
5 December 2023
An Expert Workshop was held online to harvest feedback from practitioners, civil society and academia actors on how the project's Guidelines should look like.
28 November 2023
The Public Engagement for Energy Infrastructure Task has published its first report on drivers and barriers of public engagement in energy infrastructure – with accompanying factsheet ad slide pack.