Dan van der Horst

National renewable energy policy and local opposition in the UK: the failed development of a biomass electricity plant

Biomass energy developments in the UK are supported by central government but face considerable opposition from the public. The purpose of this study is to explore the causes and consequences of public opposition to biomass energy development in North Wiltshire where Ambient Energy Ltd. proposed the development of a 5MWe wood gasification plant near the town of Cricklade. The case study was conducted through in-depth interviews, content analysis, person to person questionnaire survey, focus group discussion and participatory appraisal methods. Though biomass energy plants in general have fewer environmental impacts than plants which use fossil fuel, there could still be local impacts which give rise to concerns and local opposition to the development. The opposition could be partially explained by the fact that the general public is relatively unfamiliar with biomass energy. Public acceptance or rejection was mainly based on the public trust or mistrust. The case study demonstrates two distinctly rigid characteristics among the key stakeholders of biomass energy development. These are the ‘not-in-my-back-yard’ attitude from the public and the ‘there-is-no-alternative’ attitude of the developers. These rigid stances were widely contributing to the failure of the project to gain planning permission. The environmental justification of biomass energy at the national level is not always sufficient to convince the local residents. Winning public support to promote biomass energy requires an alternative approach of planning and action through interactive communication, public participation and collective learning among all the stakeholders.

Mapping hotspots of multiple landscape functions: a case study on farmland afforestation in Scotland

Many conservation and restoration efforts in developed countries are increasingly based on the premise of recognising and stimulating more ‘multi-functionality’ in agricultural landscapes. Public policy making is often a pragmatic process that involves efforts to negotiate trade-offs between the potentially conflicting demands of various stakeholders. Conservationists’ efforts to influence policy making, can therefore benefit from any tool that will help them to identify other socio-economic functions or values that coincide with good ecological conservation options. Various types of socio-economic objectives have in recent years been mapped across landscapes and so there are now important opportunities to explore the spatial heterogeneity of these diverse functions across the wider landscape in search of potential spatial synergies, i.e. ‘multiple win locations’ or multifunctional ‘hotspots’.This paper explores the potential occurrence of such synergies within the agricultural landscape of northeast Scotland and evaluates an existing woodland planting policy using and combining three different policy objectives. Our results show that there are indeed broad areas of the studied landscape where multiple objectives (biodiversity, visual amenity and on-site recreation potential) could be achieved simultaneously (hotspots), and that the case study which we evaluate (the Farm Woodland Premium Scheme) could be much better spatially targeted with regards to each individual objective as well as with regards to these hotspots of multifunctionality.

Introduction: Landscapes of Energies

Abstract The international Kyoto process and the work of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have progressively presented the evidence of global warming as the future and most urgent challenge for humanity. National and supra-national renewable energy policies are at the core of the strategies developed in order to face it. The ongoing changes in the energy mix, which include an increase in the share of renewable energy, triggers a new interest in the landscape-energy relationship. Renewable energy is widely and unevenly dispersed across the land. Their spatial impacts and decentralized energy infrastructures can be significant, highly perceptible and regarded as the re-composition of socio-technical links between landscape and energy. Landscape has become a key arena for the debate on energy policy. The reverse is also true. Energy issues might bring new dimensions into landscape policies and processes. There can be very little doubt that energy will remain the number one driver for landscape transformation in the 21st century. u2003This editorial discusses the empirical and theoretical potential of developing research works at the crossroads of landscapes and energies, and ventures a tentative agenda for what can be termed the ‘‘landscapes of energies. The papers gathered in this special issue all explore the evolving relationship between landscape and energy, albeit from different angles. They capture, together, some of the richness of this emerging research field.

Social enterprise and renewable energy: emerging initiatives and communities of practice

Purpose – After years of attempting to develop renewable energy (RE) mainly through large private sector initiatives, the UK government has broadened its approach to provide more support for other actors in this sector. The purpose of this paper is to assess what role social enterprise (SE) activities can play in the development of the RE sector in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – The approach consists of an initial effort to map the sector in terms of project types; and to assess the benefit of supporting SE activities in RE through an empirical case study. Two types of SE‐RE initiatives are examined here, namely a Scottish SE‐RE consultancy (the Highlands and Islands Renewable Energy Company – HICEC) and the various SEs it supports in developing RE projects through grants like the Scottish Community and Household Renewables Initiative (SCHRI).Findings – A typology of enterprise activities in RE is developed, based on activities along the RE supply chain. The case study demonstrates the value of part...

Carbon Claims and Energy Landscapes: Exploring the Political Ecology of Biomass

Abstract The greatest proportion (83%) of renewable energy in the UK is derived from biomass. Despite this there has been little debate over the potential landscape impacts of biomass, and the sector is characterized by considerable levels of uncertainty. This paper explores the ways in which biomass is framed within the carbon debate, interrogating the trade-offs and conflicts surrounding the production of dedicated and subsidized energy crops. Drawing upon a political ecology framework, we seek to explore the difference that a specific energy crop, Miscanthus, makes in current debates over bioenergy. We outline how the ecology of the plant plays a critical role in structuring the political, ecological and economic adoption of biomass energy, focusing on its status as a new species in the UK. Taking a case study of a Yorkshire landscape long dominated by coal, we explore the context of recent developments in biomass energy. Through this case study we examine how the uncertain ecology of Miscanthus undermines claims concerning the economic viability of biomass, and trace how the potential production of an ‘alien’ landscape creates a series of social and ecological tensions. The paper concludes by reflecting upon the political ecology of carbon, suggesting that the example of this energy crop highlights the way in which carbon tends to be fetishized, or removed from its social, ecological and (thus) place specific context, within current energy debates.

Environmental Impact Assessment, ecosystems services and the case of energy crops in England

A consequence of the increased requirements for renewable energy is likely to be allocation of more land to bio-energy crop production. Recent regulatory changes in England, as in other parts of the UK, mean that changes in land-use are increasingly subject to screening through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This paper reviews these regulatory changes and explores the potential benefits of incorporating a fuller examination of ecosystem services within EIA procedures. The authors argue that such an approach could help achieve sustainability by identifying the best options within an area, rather than concentrating on the negative effects of selected proposed projects. It could also help highlight the benefits provided by existing and proposed agricultural, forestry, peri-urban and urban systems. However, successful implementation of an ecosystem services approach would also require a greater understanding of the societal preferences for the full range of ecosystem services at a landscape scale, aswell as the trade-offs and synergies between uses of specific services.

Enhancing ecosystem services for flood mitigation: a conservation strategy for peri-urban landscapes?

A key reason why some ecosystem services are undervalued is because they are not easily perceived both by beneficiaries and potential providers. Hydrological modeling allows us to assess, quantify, and visualize the causal link between a particular human intervention and the positive or negative impacts this has on flooding. This study uses such a model to test hypothetical changes in land use in the Brazilian coastal city of Paraty. We discuss how the adoption of higher density patterns of urban development can respond to the needs of a growing population, while safeguarding cultural landscapes of high environmental value against unsustainable urban sprawl and encroachment. Results of the modeling exercise show how water-flow regulation services can be improved, and to what extent restoring natural functions and properties of peri-urban floodplains may reduce urban flooding.

A Prototype Method to Map the Potential Visual-Amenity Benefits of New Farm Woodlands

In many developed countries forest cover is growing and forestry policy is increasingly focused on the provision of nonmarket benefits such as recreation, biodiversity, and visual amenity. The amount of benefit provided by new woodland is not only dependent on the (site level) design of the woodland, but also on its location in the wider landscape. This poses a challenge for policymakers, who, in order to allocate limited resources efficiently, have to target areas in which the efforts or costs of planting are relatively low and the benefits of planting are relatively high. The adoption by policymakers of such methods of spatial targeting has been hampered by a lack of established methods with which to map the various nonmarket benefits in a policy-relevant way. In this paper I develop a new GIS (geographic information system)-based method to map the potential visual-amenity benefits of new small-scale woodlands, on the basis of criteria of visibility, size, and location of the viewing population, and public preference for wooded landscapes. A case study in Scotland, relating to an existing publicly funded afforestation scheme, is used to demonstrate how this map can serve as an important criterion for the selective allocation of planting subsidies, thus helping to provide a better (visual-amenity) value for (taxpayers) money.

Local Rights to Landscape in the Global Moral Economy of Carbon

Abstract Energy policy is an increasingly influential driver for landscape change in the Global North and in rapidly industrializing nations. The renewable energy industry and the large utilities installing wind farms are increasingly powerful actors in the global economy, and their activities are giving rise to a growing number of energy-landscape conflicts. Dependent on its characteristics with regards to the local landscape and the energy system it is part of, a renewable energy project can be portrayed as representing either development or conservation, and representing either globalization or localization. By interrogating landscape as a right, and carbon as a commodity, this paper reveals a number of tensions between abstract, aggregate and top-down narratives that are typical of a globalist discourse, and more localized, contextualized and individuated concerns. We draw attention to examples of reconciliation through customized entrepreneurial activities which manage to make sense of landscape, energy and climate issues at the local level, and which can be enacted and presented through both a globalist and a local narrative. These developments illustrate that hybridity of the local and the global is yielding differential rural energy geographies, consistent with Woodss (2007) concept of global countryside.

Serious games for energy social science research

This paper proposes a set of criteria for evaluation of serious games (SGs) which are intended as effective methods of engaging energy users and lowering consumption. We discuss opportunities for using SGs in energy research which go beyond existing feedback mechanisms, including use of immersive virtual worlds for learning and testing behaviours, and sparking conversations within households. From a review of existing SG evaluation criteria, we define a tailored set of criteria for energy SG development and evaluation. The criteria emphasise the need for the game to increase energy literacy through applicability to real-life energy use/management; clear, actionable goals and feedback; ways of comparing usage socially and personal relevance. Three existing energy games are evaluated according to this framework. The paper concludes by outlining directions for future development of SGs as an effective tool in social science research, including games which inspire reflection on trade-offs and usage at different scales.