A transition to a sustainable energy system is urgent due to climate change, on global level and in Sweden. For this transition, wind power plays an important role. According to Swedens national strategy for wind power, the County Administrative Boards were suggested to, in close collaboration with the municipalities, derive expected shares of wind power in order to reach the goal of 100 TWh wind power to year 2040. Simultaneously, wind power can entail social and ecological impacts, among these landscape impacts, noise and flickering shadows, which can affect
residential areas, cultural values and recreation. Also reindeer husbandry can be affected. Ecological impacts can be habitat loss and fragmentation as well as collisions with birds and bats, impacting on biological diversity. Wind power development can also create jobs and thus contribute to local and regional economy. In order to develop useful planning support for wind power planning, the current planning practice and permitting process needs to be investigated concerning which aspects of sustainability that are taken into account, factors that are used, and trade-offs that are made between sustainability goals. In addition, planning support tools need to be developed, that can integrate different sustainability goals and work as a dialogue tool in the planning process. A methodology that can be useful in this context is Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis (SMCA). There are though several challenges associated with using SMCA in real-world planning contexts, where further method development and adaption is needed to increase its applicability. The overall aim of the project “Regional planning support for wind power” (REWIND) was to investigate wind power planning and methods for planning support, to find opportunities for development, where the regional level plays an greater role, providing competence, data, knowledge and coordination. In this way, suggestions can be made on how regional support for wind power planning can be developed to efficiently strengthen municipal planning, acceptance and sustainable regional growth. The project consisted of two interacting parts with a common final discussion.
The goal for Part 1 in the project was to investigate the current planning practice and legislation through analysis of municipal policy documents and guiding judgements. Thus, we investigated which sustainability aspects and factors that were considered, with a special focus on the spatial dimension. As well, we investigated trade-offs between sustainability goals in planning and court cases. The goal for Part 2 in the project was to develop a methodological framework for SMCA, as planning support for terrestrial wind power on regional and municipal level in Sweden. The project used a selection of existing methods from SMCA that were adapted and combined with new methods. These were integrated as parts of the REWIND tool, for increased applicability in the planning process. The method development concerned a) a GIS-based tool for more flexible creation and aggregation of the spatial indicators for the factors, b) a new method for weighing of factors, and c) a new method for conflict mapping. The REWIND tool was applied in two case studies in the counties Västernorrland and Västra Götaland, where the methods were tested in collaboration with selected actors.
Finally, Part 1 and 2 were integrated in a common discussion, together with a focus group interview with municipal officials. The interview concerned wind power planning and related sustainability perspectives as well as the possibilities of SMCA to strengthen regional and municipal planning and collaboration. The methodology included both qualitative and quantitative methods, in the form of literature reviews, interviews, focus group discussions, as well as case studies with application and method development of SMCA in dialogue with stakeholders. Scientific literature was reviewed targeting planning of wind power, its preconditions and effects on different sustainability targets, as well as methods and applications of SMCA in planning contexts. Swedish wind power plans and judgements were analysed, to understand which factors were involved and how they were treated, trade-offs between sustainability goals, and problems and opportunities for sustainable wind power planning. From the results, together with interviews for understanding significance and treatment of selected factors, such as the electricity grid, the REWIND framework was developed. It consists of a selection of existing SMCA methods together with new methods developed within the project; for deriving spatial indicators, weighing and conflict mapping. Method development and application was carried out with the help of the case studies in Västernorrland and Västra Götaland counties, including involvement of stakeholders through focus group discussions.
About two-thirds of the Swedish municipalities have carried out some form of wind power planning, even if these to varying degrees have become outdated. We found that the main themes that are balanced against wind power in wind power plans and judgements are noise, landscapes, cultural environment, outdoor recreation, nature conservation, reindeer husbandry, and defence. Themes that appear to be especially difficult to handle are those that concern reindeer husbandry and defence, but also possibilities to connect to the electricity grid. There is a great variation within wind power planning concerning how the spatial analysis is organised, themes that are included and how they are treated, as well as trade-offs between wind power and other sustainability aspects. The analysis of judgements indicate that the comprehensive plan is often considered in the assessment of permit applications. Thus, more updated and well informed municipal plans would be a help as decision support also in the permitting process. Concerning SMCA, there are several challenges related to its integration in realworld planning contexts. Challenges that emerged through the focus group discussions were, among other, knowledge and data gaps, difficulties in identifying factors and their spatial indicators on different scales, standardisation of spatial indicators, weighing of factors and aggregation of their spatial indicators that to some extent can hide conflicts, and control of the weighing.
The REWIND framework consists of three steps, 1) scoping, 2) design of planning alternatives, and 3) evaluation. The GIS-based REWIND tool was developed to enable creation and change of spatial indicators for the factors. A relatively simple but systematic weighing method was developed, the Ranking-Rating (RR) method, which allows a transparent integration of the stakeholders input with the target to get weights that represent their view on the factors’ importance. In addition, the understanding of the meaning of the weights can increase through comparisons with the planning tree, which gives an instant overview of different dimensions of sustainability. A method for conflict mapping was also developed, in order to enable elimination of areas with high conflict between factors. These new methods were integrated in the REWIND framework.
The general overview of wind power planning that emerged in the study is, that it can be difficult to handle the complex technical-economic, social and environmental challenges in municipal planning and decision making. Simultaneously, there is a need for a more continuous and proactive wind power planning. Possibilities to strengthen this could be financial support and through regional collaboration processes together with the municipalities, in order to strengthen their capacity for wind power planning. This could include a collaboration platform where municipal
initiatives and planning processes can interact with counties and regions, for knowledge building and exchange of experience. SMCA can be part of such a platform, as a useful tool for integration and trade-off of relevant knowledge and interests, in a systematic and transparent way. This could increase the possibilities to interact with the planning processes for the electricity grid, as well as facilitate knowledge and capacity building including dialogue with key actors of the defence interests, reindeer husbandry, and other. Such a collaboration platform could also strengthen the inter-municipal cooperation as well as the handling of areas of national interest and trade-offs between these. This can contribute to development of a more coordinated and sustainable wind power planning, with potential to, in the long run, form part of a more cohesive landscape planning and sustainable development of the energy system in Sweden.