Abruzzo’s municipalities show high degree of participation in the Covenant of Mayors, the European network which aims to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives at the municipal level. This reflects the regional government’s goal of a renewable energy action plan in each municipality. An action plan allows municipalities to access European and national subsidies for renewable energy deployment. As a result several municipalities have been able to deploy small-scale renewable energy installations. This provides long-term revenue which can be reinvested to satisfy specific needs, such as refurbishing a local school or renovating senior residences. Because of the close involvement of local communities, and explicit regional rules to preserve the landscape, renewable enery installations are usually scaled to fit the local landscape without causing a dramatic and sudden change.
The paper provides three main findings: i) Taking aesthetic as well technical considerations into account when siting renewable energy installations can help integrate them better into rural landscapes. ii) Linking renewable energy deployment to tangible benefits for the hosting community, such as better public services, improves public support dramatically. iii) Without a framework of co-ordination to benefit from economies of scale, a large number of small initiatives do not necessarily have the same impact on the regional economy as fewer large-scale initiatives.
Hydropower, biomass, and wind dominate the regional energy profile in Middle Norrland. Regional specialisation in energy is mirrored by the presence of locally-owned utilities, which provide the Middle Norrland economy with cheap energy and ancillary services.
Renewable energy is booming in Extremadura and is benefiting regional development. Large-scale solar energy installations have the lion’s share of renewable energy deployment. These include some of the biggest photovoltaic (PV) parks in Europe.
Puglia is the leading region in Italy in renewable energy production. Renewable energy deployment in rural Puglia has contributed to rural development, though not on the scale anticipated, and not without generating distortions in the rural economy.
The primary force driving renewable energy deployment in Scotland has been the regional economic development strategy, which aims to transition to a low carbon economy. Scotland has considerable autonomy in energy and rural development policy and this has benefited its renewable energy strategy.