In Renewables We Trust
When it comes to the speedy deployment of wind, solar and grid projects, community trust is a key piece of the puzzle. On June 11, during the European Sustainable Energy Week, experts and practitioners unpacked the multi-faceted concept of trust and public acceptance amongst communities hosting renewable energy projects.
Panellists stressed that early, tailored and continuous public engagement is essential for faster and fairer deployment of renewable energy and grid infrastructure. Participatory measures, such as thoughtful events, and energy communities, facilitate the rollout of renewables, making them as important as technical feasibility. While not a panacea for the challenges renewable energy projects may encounter, prioritising meaningful participation from the outset, with consideration of social, historical and cultural contexts as well as local needs, can cultivate transparency and genuine dialogue over time, thus reducing conflict, improving trust and ameliorating delays in project development.
Building on the importance of early engagement, panelists also highlighted that empowering communities through benefit sharing, ownership and local value generation can lead to fairer outcomes, accelerating the local energy transition in turn. In other words, a fast energy transformation does not preclude a fair one - the cross-sectoral Fast and Fair principles are designed to bring these two aspects together. At the same time, an increase in measures to boost overall fairness must be accompanied by more efficient permitting. Permitting processes must become faster, simpler and more predictable without compromising environmental safeguards or stakeholder collaboration. To achieve this, improved planning models incorporate stronger coordination, greater digitalisation and earlier dialogue.
In that vein, the session also highlighted inspiring examples of collaboration between developers, municipalities, civil society and energy communities that have resulted in smoother project rollout, demonstrating that community-first approaches can help drive the energy transition in practice.
Watch the full session back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKtGo5z69qU
Publishing date: