Identifying the regional potential for renewable energy systems using ecosystem services and landscape visualizations

The pressure to use more renewable energies to mitigate climate change brings new challenges for landscape planning. A massive expansion of these new infrastructures has a strong impact on landscape functions and their goods and services. Yet, missing concepts and methods to evaluate the impacts of these infrastructures makes it difficult to understand how the new energy systems should be integrated into the environment in order to sustain the identification of the people with their cultural landscape, to preserve the ecosystem processes, and at the same time to address the economical requirements related to energy production. We present a concept to evaluate regional potentials for a sustainable mix of renewable energy systems based on the analysis of ecosystem services. The spatially explicit quantification of ecosystem goods and services at technical optimal locations for the new energy systems is accompanied by a participatory process to ensure proper identification of the ecosystem services at stake and their value. The results are meant to present stakeholders with an approach to identify potential locations and conflict areas for renewable energy systems. This provides decision-makers with a tool for balancing interests and designing optimal landscape development options. The outlined pro-active approach can significantly reduce the environmental impact of renewable energy systems and enhance their public acceptability.