Energy-Landscape Conflicts and the Politics of Scale Around Photovoltaic Parks in Germany

Research on energy-landscape conflicts has focused on wind turbines and transmission grids rather than photovoltaic parks (PVP). The few studies on conflicts around PVP zoom in on the local scale and overlook multi-scalar drivers, dynamics, and outcomes of such conflicts. To address this research gap, I develop a relational and multi-scalar understanding of energy-landscape conflicts. From this perspective, energy landscapes are embedded in, and produced at, multiple scales. Thus, conflicts result from a politics of scale as actors try to control the development of energy landscapes at different scales. In return, landscape conflicts can change scalar relations. A case study of the first PVP in Germany that has not received funding through the renewable energy act (EEG) exemplifies my theoretical arguments. If project developers do not request EEG funding, the planning restrictions that the EEG implies at the national scale do not apply. Thus, municipalities can grant planning permits for PVP according to their own criteria for landscape development. In reaction, various actors try to scale up the spatial planning authority and implement their criteria for landscape development.