Wind power planning, landscapes and publics

Renewable energy is currently undergoing a renaissance. Efforts to achieve national targets that have announced forward invariably impact on the appearance of the physical landscape, and raise issues of spatial planning. Proponents of renewable energy—sometimes, planners themselves—have often taken the support of environmental NGOs and the wider public for granted, as they perceive renewable energy facilities to be ‘clean’, ‘green’ and a continuation of traditional technologies such as wind and water mills. But whilst large sections of the population in developed countries are indeed in principle in favour of renewables, in practice proposed facilities have often given rise to considerable public concerns.The eight papers selected for inclusion in this issue expose different aspects of wind energy development and planning. They all explore the ways in which publics and stakeholders approach renewable energy in specific landscapes. They also analyse the tensions that arise from these different framings when state or private sector initiatives are planned at the strategic (national) or practical (site) level. Spanning eight different regions across five EU member states, five of the papers examine the spatial planning approaches at the regional to national level and three papers are case-based explorations of the landscape issues underlying the tensions raised by wind power development.