VVMplus Research Project

Year

2016

Organisation

The Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment At Aalborg University

Description

The project aims to increase social acceptance of renewable energy projects through improvements in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process by enabling dialogue and including communities in the process.


Highlights:

  • The mapping of current EIA practices
  • Analysis of current conflicts over renewable energy projects and analysis of the barriers and possibilities of working with social impacts in EIAs
  • International literature review on the topic
  • Development of pilot projects
  • Recommendations for EIA practitioners both in regard to renewable energy projects and projects with similar conflicts, such as new transmission power lines

 

Main information:

This project aims at improving practices to increase the local acceptance of renewable energy projects, based on the Danish experience that the transition to renewable energy is increasingly challenged by local opposition to e.g. wind turbines and biogas plants. It focuses on Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), which is a central arena for dialogue and conflicts concerning renewable energy projects, and thus a valuable tool to improve. The project is based on understanding that social impacts are central to the conflicts, but so far have not played a very significant role in EIA reports and processes. The project seeks to understand these issues and propose recommendations for an improved EIA practice. Project partners include: The Department of Wind Energy at The Technical University of Denmark and the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy.

 

RGI gratefully acknowledges the EU LIFE funding support:

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the LIFE Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.