WP 4: Governance issues

Wind turbines (Photo: A. Künzelmann/UFZ) WP 4 focuses on governance questions with regard to the sustainable transformation of the energy system. It aims (a) at identifying regulation gaps, esp. regarding the spatial allocation of energy infrastructure and the new forms of resource use of the underground (mitigation of site-specific conflicts and risks), (b) at developing adequate incentives and policy mixes and (c) at developing options for improving social acceptance for RE solutions by appropriate models of civic participation (with wind farms as case study) or strategies for dealing with uncertainty from inevitable knowledge-gaps in communication processes (with bioenergy and geothermics as case-studies).

Main tasks

• Develop appropriate approaches that address the spatial effects of the energy transition (e.g. negative social and ecological effects, see also WP 1 for consequences of spatial allocations of RE infrastructures)
• Improving the coordination within the energy system (e.g. spatial organisation of electricity production – storage – transmission – demand-side management, see also WP 1, WP 2, WP 3)
• Market- and system integration of renewables (e.g. capacity markets)
• Actors, stakeholder participation and the role of science within the energy transition (e.g. public perception of renewables and appropriate inclusion in decision-making, see also WP 3 for the example of the use of underground ressources)

Associated projects

• Helmholtz Program Technology, Innovation & Soeciety (TIS)
  
• Energy-Trans