Learning about the social dimension of renewable energies.

My host was the University of Seville, Department of Human Geography, and I stayed there from the 23rd of September to the 5th of October 2018, as a first split of my secondment. I was excited to be the first seconded staff member in the project and to kick-off this type of activity. I am used to traveling, but not in this University context.

Me and my hosts discussed WP2 and the work to be tackled. María José Prados was very welcoming to my ideas on what to work on, so I kicked-off WP2 -Sustainable Implementation: Policies and Practices with a proposal for a questionnaire to be applied on the field. This was later replaced by a final Follow-Up Questionnaire to be used during other secondments, but it was a good introduction to WP2. I was also busy contributing to the website of PEARLS which was not published at that time; made suggestions as to the graphical aspects and contents to be included. On the social aspects of the energy systems, the core focus of PEARLS, I had the opportunity to discuss with the USE team their approach to field work and also did a comprehensive literature review on the subject.

During my stay I had the opportunity the Energy Agency of Andalusia and present the PEARLS project to their team. I also discussed with the hosting team other stakeholders to be engaged in the project.

Since there was still no methodological guidelines for WP2 -these were produced later by the coordinator- my secondment was split so further work will be developed in the near future along with the completeness of the secondments according to the proposed methodology.

Looking forward to going back to Seville!

Natalie Samovich

Understanding the renewable energy sector in Andalusia

In January 2019 I started my two-month secondment at CLANER, in Malaga. My second period of this secondment was spent in Seville, at the offices of Considera, an affiliate of CLANER, in April-May 2019. For the third period I returned to Malaga, in January 2020.

CLANER is a business association, more exactly the Andalusian Cluster of Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency. It brings together over one hundred companies, public administration agencies and departments, universities and research centres that work on this sector and plays an important role in representing their interests and providing expert advice on energy issues.

During the first period of the secondment, under the guidance of Carlos Rojo, I collected information on national and regional energy policies, remuneration frameworks, planning regulations and procedures, the distribution of energy infrastructures in the region, public opinion and siting conflicts. Navigating a sea of legislation, policy documents, regulations, statistical data and media articles, I tried to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for the further development of renewable energy landscapes in Spain. A field trip to the Guadalteba area allowed for a direct experience of the renewable energy landscapes in the Malaga province: the windfarm right framing the village of Ardales, the dam of Guadalhorce with wind turbines in the distant background, the La Camara windfarm in a desolate stretch of the road to Ronda. With land prices at a premium in the Costa del Sol, solar power plants are far less common.

In Seville, documental data collection continued and I was able to carry out an interview with a local group of the energy cooperative SomEnergia. I also took the opportunity to visit the wind farms of Vejer (a best practice case of community participation in renewable energy planning) and of Tarifa, the first to be built in Spain and some of the largest in the country.

In January 2020 the secondment period was used to update the information on RE policies, which underwent significant transformations, with the publication of new laws on self-consumption and energy communities, and collecting more information, documents and news articles.

Data collection during the secondment has been used to prepare several conference presentations and will be used in scientific journal articles.

Ana Delicado

Development of a Methodology for Evaluation of Wind Farms

My first commission within PEARLS Project was developed throughout July 2019 at Geosystem Hellas A.E. in Athens (Greece). During this period I collaborated with its CEO and President, Betty Charalampopoulou, and also Christos Kontopoulos.

The work carried out during this month may perhaps be divided into two stages.

An initial stage in which I address the study of wind farms in the Isle of Paros (Greece), as one of the case studies of PEARLS. By using Geographic Information Systems as Qgis 3.4.9 and ArcGIS 10.5.1, both as ArcMap and ArcScene much of the information required for the project is collected, such as aerial orthophotos, digital elevation models and road networks. I have also created new layers of vector information on the edge of the main urban centres of the island, as well as locating the most touristic beaches. I have made progress in applying the procedures and tools made available to researchers by the aforementioned software, in order to delimit the visible areas from the most touristic areas of the island of Paros, as are the two most important urban centres and beaches that have a more natural environment. We have also delimited the areas from which the wind turbines currently active on the island are visible.

A second stage focuses on the analysis of the different methodologies applied in the bibliography reviewed in document entitled Best current practices, which corresponds to June 2019 report within the Work Package 4. The objective is to set the methodology to be followed in the case studies addressed in the different participating countries into PEARLS. The methodology is based on giving positive or negative weight to the different variables involved in the impact assessment (noise, visibility, vegetation, proximity to roads or power plants, wind intensity, etc) and will depend a lot on each case study and will also vary depending on the legislation in force in each country. The publications value the consideration of various local experts and users in granting such positive or negative weights, so one of the proposals will be to develop a questionnaire in which experts and local users will be asked to consider the installation of new renewable energy plants (both wind and solar). The characteristics of the installations in each country may result in different weights of the elements, since some will show more concern not to deteriorate the tourist attraction (therefore visibility will be important) and others for not affecting forest areas, or agricultural areas. In the last days of the stay, progress is made in the design of the questions that are going to form part of the questionnaire.

María Ángeles Barral

Getting to know energy communities in Portugal

 My first stay at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL) took place between 1 and 31 July. The ICS-UL is dedicated to research and advanced training in social sciences, with special emphasis on the current Portuguese social reality.

During my stay I was able to get to know the Portuguese context in terms of energy communities, energy planning, landscape planning in this country and, in depth, two examples of energy communities, very different from each other.

The first one is located in Valverde (Évora), and was originated by a European project led by the large company “Energias de Portugal” (EDP) and called “Sensivel”. EDP has installed 25 new-generation photovoltaic installations in 25 homes or businesses, monitoring the performance of the technology and the consumption habits of users. We have conducted several interviews with citizens and the mayor of the parish, completing the work that had already been done interviewing the head of the project by EDP.

The second energy community is located in São Luís, parish of Odemira. In this case it has been the citizen association “Transição São Luís” which, through the participative budgets of the city council, has achieved the installation of photovoltaic panels in the public buildings of the parish. We interviewed a representative of the association and the facilities.

The visits and interviews were carried out jointly with Joana Sacouto (ICS-UL) and Ricardo Iglesias Pascual (Pablo de Olavide University, Seville), who was also making a secondments in Lisbon in my Work Package.

During this time I have been able to interact and learn from the researchers of ICS-UL, Ana Delicado, Roberto Falanga, Mónica Truninger and João Ferrão, and I have also been able to participate in the seminar “Cities on the make. Tactical urbanism, placemaking and Civic Hacking”, organized by ICS-UL and whose central theme has been innovation in citizen participation.

Development of a Methodology for Evaluation of Wind Farms

My first commission within PEARLS Project was developed throughout July 2019 at Geosystem Hellas A.E. in Athens (Greece). During this period I collaborated with its CEO and President, Betty Charalampopoulou, and also Christos Kontopoulos.

The work carried out during this month may perhaps be divided into two stages.

An initial stage in which I address the study of wind farms in the Isle of Paros (Greece), as one of the case studies of PEARLS. By using Geographic Information Systems as Qgis 3.4.9 and ArcGIS 10.5.1, both as ArcMap and ArcScene much of the information required for the project is collected, such as aerial orthophotos, digital elevation models and road networks. I have also created new layers of vector information on the edge of the main urban centres of the island, as well as locating the most touristic beaches. I have made progress in applying the procedures and tools made available to researchers by the aforementioned software, in order to delimit the visible areas from the most touristic areas of the island of Paros, as are the two most important urban centres and beaches that have a more natural environment. We have also delimited the areas from which the wind turbines currently active on the island are visible.

A second stage focuses on the analysis of the different methodologies applied in the bibliography reviewed in document entitled Best current practices, which corresponds to June 2019 report within the Work Package 4. The objective is to set the methodology to be followed in the case studies addressed in the different participating countries into PEARLS. The methodology is based on giving positive or negative weight to the different variables involved in the impact assessment (noise, visibility, vegetation, proximity to roads or power plants, wind intensity, etc) and will depend a lot on each case study and will also vary depending on the legislation in force in each country. The publications value the consideration of various local experts and users in granting such positive or negative weights, so one of the proposals will be to develop a questionnaire in which experts and local users will be asked to consider the installation of new renewable energy plants (both wind and solar). The characteristics of the installations in each country may result in different weights of the elements, since some will show more concern not to deteriorate the tourist attraction (therefore visibility will be important) and others for not affecting forest areas, or agricultural areas. In the last days of the stay, progress is made in the design of the questions that are going to form part of the questionnaire.

María Ángeles Barral

Getting to know energy communities in Portugal

 My first stay at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL) took place between 1 and 31 July. The ICS-UL is dedicated to research and advanced training in social sciences, with special emphasis on the current Portuguese social reality.

During my stay I was able to get to know the Portuguese context in terms of energy communities, energy planning, landscape planning in this country and, in depth, two examples of energy communities, very different from each other.

The first one is located in Valverde (Évora), and was originated by a European project led by the large company “Energias de Portugal” (EDP) and called “Sensivel”. EDP has installed 25 new-generation photovoltaic installations in 25 homes or businesses, monitoring the performance of the technology and the consumption habits of users. We have conducted several interviews with citizens and the mayor of the parish, completing the work that had already been done interviewing the head of the project by EDP.

The second energy community is located in São Luís, parish of Odemira. In this case it has been the citizen association “Transição São Luís” which, through the participative budgets of the city council, has achieved the installation of photovoltaic panels in the public buildings of the parish. We interviewed a representative of the association and the facilities.

The visits and interviews were carried out jointly with Joana Sacouto (ICS-UL) and Ricardo Iglesias Pascual (Pablo de Olavide University, Seville), who was also making a secondments in Lisbon in my Work Package.

During this time I have been able to interact and learn from the researchers of ICS-UL, Ana Delicado, Roberto Falanga, Mónica Truninger and João Ferrão, and I have also been able to participate in the seminar “Cities on the make. Tactical urbanism, placemaking and Civic Hacking”, organized by ICS-UL and whose central theme has been innovation in citizen participation.

The activity carried out is within the framework of WP3. During the visit to Italy, we made a tour and identification of different parts of the country to meet with main entities in the promotion and development of renewable energies, together with Rossano Albatici, Ph.D. Professor of Building Construction University of Trento we made a main list of entities to visit prior to my visit and there we closed the agenda to visit them and were the following:

• UNITN
• GREEN STORM
• TRL GROP
• TIN
• ELETTRORIZZI
• GREENPEACE

Each one of them provided us with relevant information on the current and future situation of the implementation of renewable energies in the country and their opinion regarding the improvements that can be made to promote their implementation at a public and private level.

The activities implemented in this Secondment contribute to the improvement of the quality of the proposed Sustainable Spatial Energy Plan for Israel.

The activities carried out such as the identification of key actors, the creation of a questionnaire and a shared methodology between the WP3 and WP2 have allowed the improvement of the results obtained as well as the exchange of information and experiences between the Spanish and Portuguese partners. Allowing to share their knowledge and expanding them on the situation of renewable energies in the country as well as the perception of the citizens about them.

In August visited the country of Portugal, with the intention to know in depth his installations of renewable energies and behaviour of the population in this regard, for this interview to different key actors. With the University were seeing the different technologies in renewable energies in Portugal, the most stood out and abundant to difference with the rest of the technologies is the aeolian energy

The photovoltaic area is less developed although we can find us this type of technology in the roofs of houses and in the ones of public buildings as in the big central market of supplies of Lisbon.

Results:

The main results have been

– Questionnaire for interviews

– Identification of key actors

– Actors interviews

– Main benefits and difficulties of the development of renewable energies

The activities carried out such as the identification of key actors, the creation of a questionnaire and a shared methodology between the WP3 and WP2 have allowed the improvement of the results obtained as well as the exchange of information and experiences between the Spanish and Portuguese partners. Allowing to share their knowledge and expanding them on the situation of renewable energies in the country as well as the perception of the citizens about them.

The activity carried out is within the framework of WP3. During this secondment period the following activities were discussed and implemented:

– Definition of type and format of data for the insertion to the webGIS platform

– Acquisition of all necessary geodata from open access archives and/or official national cadastral & planning organisations

– Definition of the web GIS platform design and layout

– Development of the web GIS portal

– Data Insertion to the web-GIS platform

– Participation with a paper submission to the RSCY2020 conference

Results:

– Vector and Raster dataset ready for the 5 countries – case studies

– Online web GIS portal ready to be configured and populated with the appropriate geodata

Evaluation of the Secondment accordingly to the Project’s repercussion:

According to Task 4.1 Best Current Practices the necessary data format and sources were decided. Vector data depicting REL positions for all countries as well as the main road network and coastline were initially collected in a .shp format. Datasets for each specific case-study of each country will be treated separately in regard of each case study approach, methodology and needs.

Following the tasks 4.2 Advanced Methodologies in Sustainable Energy Planning and 4.3 Case Studies the architecture of the online geographic information system (web GIS) was defined and the platform is online – thus in a beta version with a fair amount of ready data still pending to be uploaded to the PEARLS database and eventually published.

According to Task 4.1 Best Current Practices the necessary data format and sources were decided. Vector data depicting REL positions for all countries as well as the main road network and coastline were initially collected in a .shp format. Datasets for each specific case-study of each country will be treated separately in regard of each case study approach, methodology and needs.

Following the tasks 4.2 Advanced Methodologies in Sustainable Energy Planning and 4.3 Case Studies the architecture of the online geographic information system (web GIS) was defined and the platform is online – thus in a beta version with a fair amount of ready data still pending to be uploaded to the PEARLS database and eventually published.

Additionally, during Period 2 of the secondment, the paper entitled “Planning and engagement arenas for renewable energy landscapes, Paros island example” was co-written with USE colleagues, submitted to RSCY2020 committee and is currently under evaluation.

The first part of my Secondment to Portugal has been in the winter of 2022. It was 21 days of virtual work during the lead-up to the January 30^th general elections and in the context of the Pandemic. During this time I had the chance to work with Coopernico´s João Lopes and Catarina S. Pereira at their office at Lisbon City Centre. I also worked with Ana Rita Antunes virtually. Coopernico is a Portuguese Renewable Energy Cooperative that’s combines its sustainability-oriented and social nature with support for solidarity, education and environmental protection projects.

The coincidence of the pandemic situation after the Christmas holiday period and the government crisis in Portugal with the convocation of elections painted an uncertain picture for this first part of the Secondment. Most of the stay has been researching on renewable energies in Portugal, both official regulations and scientific publications. Together with the company, I have been involved in case research in Portugal to analyze conflicts over the installation of centralized energy plants, mainly due to the construction of new photovoltaic plants in the south of the country. I have also researched on distributed energy, identifying case studies in Portugal, mainly in cities such as Porto or Lisbon, together with some rural communities.

Due to the limitations caused by the Covid pandemic, Coopernico’s staff is partially teleworking, so I have been teleworking from a nice flat in Lisbon cite center but being in continued contact with Catarina, Joaoy Ana Rita. This last one was interviewed virtually because she was sick with Covid.

Without any doubt, my impression during the Secondment will be marked by teleworking and the difficulty of accessing people and study cases due to the limitations of direct contact. And the uniqueness of a city like Lisbon almost without visitors.

María José Prados