Local residents, farmers, property and hotel owners, mayors and officials - they can all be affected in one way or another by the construction of new wind turbines, solar and biogas plants or geothermal drilling, and can either welcome the innovation or try to prevent it.

"Activity and participation - increasing acceptance of renewable energies through participation" was the title of a new research project funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment. The scientists investigated how regional and local stakeholders could be successfully involved in the introduction of renewable energies in order to increase local acceptance of renewables. The IZT was primarily interested in efficient financial participation processes, with a focus on financial participation concepts for biomass plants.

The project "Promoting acceptance of renewable energies through financial participation - development of practical participation concepts" was part of the joint research project "Activity and participation - increasing acceptance of renewable energies through participation", which was carried out by the IZT together with the Department of Environmental Psychology at the University of Magdeburg and the Centre for Technology and Society at the Technical University of Berlin.

The aim of the overall research project was to analyse opportunities for participation in the introduction of renewable energies (RE) and to derive recommendations for action to promote acceptance. The main focus was on the question of how participation processes should be successfully organised at various levels in order to increase local acceptance of renewable energies.

In the course of the research project, existing participation approaches were identified and systematised for different target groups and stakeholder groups at the local and regional level. The relationships between participation opportunities and the acceptance of RE as well as the activity of stakeholders and stakeholder groups were analysed, evaluated and comprehensively mapped.

Participation" was understood to mean both the participatory involvement of different actors in the design of the technology introduction process and, in concrete terms, the financial participation of local actors in RE systems at local and regional level.

In its project, the IZT specifically analysed strategies for increasing acceptance by means of financial participation in RE plants by regional stakeholders. Concepts for particularly efficient financial participation models with reasonable transaction costs and good integration into existing planning processes were developed and validated together with active stakeholders from different regions of Germany. The focus was on financial participation concepts for biomass plants. Specific implementation steps for a particularly promising financial participation concept were then developed for one region together with relevant stakeholders.

The result of the IZT project is a folder of slides that can be used to initiate financial participation processes. The main target groups are investors in renewable energy systems, associations and important regional network players.

Final project report "Activity and participation - increasing acceptance of renewable energies through participation" (1,9 MB)
Slide set "Promoting renewable energies through financial participation - approaches, players, tasks" as PDF (2,3 MB)
This set of slides is intended to assist in the development of practical financial participation concepts for local renewable energies. It offers an aid to action, in particular for representatives from politics and administration as well as for network actors who want to realise corresponding concepts in their municipality or region and would like to win over numerous actors for this. The slide set can be used to discuss and present various financial RE participation models as part of information and public relations work for renewable energies in a local and regional context. The slide set is available both as a PDF version and as a PowerPoint version. Individual slides can be selected or removed from the PowerPoint presentation for target group-specific use and addressing.
Slide set "Promoting renewable energies through financial participation - approaches, players, tasks" as PPT (43,4 MB)
Accompanying paper to the slide set "Promoting renewable energies through financial participation - approaches, players, tasks" as PDF  (0,3 MB)
The slide set may not be used or distributed for commercial purposes.