Shaping Energy Landscapes: Public Participation and Conflict Resolution in Wind Power, Grid Expansion, and Biogas Transformation Fields

The manifestations of the energy transition, such as the expansion of power lines, wind or biogas plants, create ‘energy landscapes’. The changes often trigger public conflicts. Landscapes as the subject of public negotiation and communication processes play a central role, for example with regard to changes in land use through energy crops or the expansion of overland power lines, wind farms or solar parks. The article takes up conflicts in the three central transformation fields of the energy transition, which are grid expansion, wind power and biogas. Based on actual policy shifts and development in each field we work out similarities and differences in the causes of conflict on the basis of current research literature. Furthermore we analyse possible courses of action for conflict management through dialogue-oriented information and participation processes. The comparison of the fields illustrates the important role of public participation in conflict management, whereby differences in the scope, structure and uniformity of the transformation fields become apparent. The need for a professional and context-sensitive design of information and participation processes for joint solutions of all actors involved becomes clear.