Renewable energy in Tourism regions - Laboratories

ReTour is an inter- and transdisciplinary research project that studies social acceptance of future renewable energy scenarios using a case study approach in selected tourism regions. In collaboration with an advisory stakeholder group the project uses a mix of methods, including spatially explicit modelling of potentials, focus groups, conjoint analysis, visualization studies and virtual reality as-sessments. Findings and methodology will contribute to more efficient planning processes, foster social acceptance and ultimately help maximize the share of renewable energy. In work package 3 so-called laboratories will be held with local stakeholders from the case study areas (e.g. policy makers, associations, hotels, firms and residents). The aim of these workshops is to assess various renewable energy scenarios, focusing on ground-mounted PV and wind power, with participants from the region that would be immediately affected. The laboratories envisioned here will be run as moderated workshops including the methods of participatory planning using PPGIS, focus groups and virtual reality environments. A considerable part of this testing environment (laboratories) was established and successfully implemented in a previous ACRP funded project called TransWind. The results generated in this work package will then partly define the parameters of the renewable energy scenarios and their ranges to be quantitatively assessed in the next analytical step in work package 4.