Renewable energy in alpine landscapes

Making infrastructure perceptible to the senses

Political targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050 will require a dramatic increase in electrification of all sectors. The alpine regions are being discussed as an important site to realise a part of the planned renewable energy expansion. Such new renewable energy installations will be built within alpine cultural landscapes and thus impose changes on landscape services and use which conflicts with the preservation of traditional cultural landscapes: Climate protection, through renewable energy expansion in the alps, collides with environmental protection.

Since cultural landscapes are built through social discourse and practices, it is of crucial importance to progress a social negotiation process. To this end, we propose, evaluate and test a novel participatory approach. By using a sensory experience as a means for strengthening the competencies needed for joint imagination of future cultural landscapes of tomorrow, this project contributes to the debates around a just transformation of the energy system and to the public negotiation process of future alpine landscapes.