Social Aspects of Renewable Energy: Keys for Optimising ...€¦ · REthinking Energy 2015, IRENA....

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Social Aspects of Renewable Energy: Keys for Optimising the Energy Transition

Leire GorroñoPhD Student, Aalborg Universitylga@plan.aau.dklg@folkecenter.dk

RE Future, 2018 EditionNordic Folkecenter

15 May 2018

Community Wind Power for the World, 2015

“There are no longer technological or economic barriers for the quantum leap to 100% renewable energy”

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REthinking Energy 2015, IRENA

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Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2017, IRENA

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REthinking Energy 2017, IRENA

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Renewables 2017, Global Status Report, REN21

The current challenges for 100% RE are mainly social and political.

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Management of fluctuating power

http://www.dkvind.dk/html/okonomi/ejer_drift.htmlThe Danish Wind Turbine Owners’ Association:

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Evolution of the Danish Spot Market Electricity Prices

Price DK-Vest Price DK-Øst Hours DK-Vest Hours DK-Øst

SMART ENERGY SYSTEMS, where electricity, heating & cooling and transport are integrated.

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• Citizens• Prosumers• Local communities• Large energy companies• Investor groups• …

CHOICES ABOUT OWNERSHIPWho will own the energy systems of the future?

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Energy Atlas 2018, Heinrich BöllFoundation, FoE Europe, EREF, GEF

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How will choices about ownership models affect the outcomes of the energy transition in terms of:

• Technology choices• Costs• Time

• Environmental benefits• Economic benefits• Social benefits

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Revenues from wind turbines are used to partly finance the harbour expansion and support the creation of 200 new jobs in a small village in western Denmark.

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Local Opposition

• Currently there are about 110 groups against wind turbines in Denmark.

• Even if 80% of the Danes are in favour of wind turbines, 80% are against wind turbines to be built nearby their living places. (NIMBY effect)

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6 out 7 projects were rejected because of local protests

ThistedMunicipality

No large wind turbines were built 2007-201715/30

“Vattenfall tears down a village and erects wind turbines”

“The energy company has bought most of a North Jutland village and torn houses down. Thus, the acidic neighbours are replaced by happy sellers.”

“The townhouses are being torn down while the agricultural land is being rented, and residents in the area are well satisfied […]. They can now come up with houses that are otherwise difficult to sell. The municipalities are also happy because the wind turbine projects can be bigger and more coherent in this way.”

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“Vattenfall’s vandalism against a local community”

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“Wind turbines are a win-win situation locally”

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“The Swedish Vattenfall: ‘We are here to grow and we will be very aggressive’ ”

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“Researcher: Vattenfall's model does not secure local support”

“It does not give local development, when energy companies manage large wind farms”

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“The enriched and the impoverished”

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Local opposition to wind turbines:

• jeopardises the fulfilment on national energy targets

• results in higher costs for the energy transition

• hinders local development and revitalisation of rural areas

There will be no 100% RE without theacceptance of local communities. It is essential

to find models that are acceptable.

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It is not the wind turbines that local citizens oppose to, but the model behind the wind turbines.

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Renewable Energy and Jobs. Annual Review 2018, IRENA

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Renewables & Community Ownership

for improvement of infrastructure, creation of new jobs, for finance for local schools in rural areas, for taking care of elder and/or ill people, addressing poverty and limited energy access, for supporting local organizations, for environmental projects, for

local public e-transport, etc.

Provide benefits not just for a few investors but for everybody in the community so they can all see renewable energy as a local improvement.

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Wind Power & Community Ownership

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CommunityOwnership

Acceptance

InitiativesImprovedEconomy

New Development 100%

Renewable Energy

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Energy Atlas 2018, Heinrich Böll Foundation, FoE Europe, EREF, GEF

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Final Recommendations• Measures for the acceleration of the development of smart

energy systems.

• (Ownership) models that are accepted by local communities.

• Raising awareness about community ownership for common good and the potentials for socio-economic benefits of RE for local communities.

• Integration of specific targets for community ownership in national, regional and municipal energy policies.

• Reasonable support schemes for RE projects with community ownership models: cost of production + community bonus

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RE for Development of Communities

Communities for RE

Thank you for your attention!

Leire Gorroñolga@plan.aau.dklg@folkecenter.dk

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